Nudge's Maximum Ride
by addicted-2-oxygen
Summary: The flock are hanging in Dr. Martinez's when the unthinkable happens. They lose a flock member for good. Four years on, they find a very different person who hates them now... Can they save her or is it time to let go? Rated T to be safe, my first story.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey everyone that clicked on this story! Thank you so much already for taking the time to read my work. I am a new author on fanfiction but i have been reading fanfics for a while so sorry if my attempt at marginally okay stories disappoints you!  
First off, I will accept ****constructive**** advice but no 'flaming' because you might happen to be in a crappy mood!**

**Well, uh, enjoy (?) ******

Nudge POV:

Today started normal ... well as normal as a mutant bird-kid's life on the run can be! Wow i sounded insane there! Anyway i wasn't kidding about the mutant bird thing, or the on the run part, me and my family were taken as babies by evil, insane, crazy scientists who changed our DNA so we all have retractable wings. We grew up in a science lab - slash – prison called The School, where we were kept in dog crates. Until Jeb, a good scientist saved us and took us to a safe house and took care of us, taught us to fly... until he disappeared and then we all thought he was dead until four years when Angel was captured and we went to save her and suddenly Jeb turned up and turned out to be a bad guy.

Oh, i forgot to introduce myself. My name is Nudge, well really i think my real name's Monique 'cause i saw it on one of Jeb's old files ages ago but more on that later. The 'we' i was referring to earlier are my family; Max age 14, the leader, Fang age 14 the bird-dude who wears black ALL the time, Iggy at age 14 is our resident blind guy (the white-coats experimented on his eyes so he's blind now), The Gasman age 8 -don't ask why, just stay upwind- and Angel, age 6 who is Gazzy's (The Gasman) real younger sister. I fit there in the middle with no family members in the Flock and a slight (okay, a massive!) tendency to babble on about meaningless things!

After rescuing Angel, we went to New York when Max acquired a Voice in her head, and after a while rescued Total (our flying talking Scottie dog) from another school, then later Fang got injured by Ari (The School also created a combination of man and wolf who can morph from beautiful people who look like models into wolves at will called Erasers. Ari is an Eraser) and then Anne Walker came and we stayed in her house while Fang was healing and even went to real school! But then she turned out to be evil like almost everyone in our twisted life. So we split and hung 'round for a while before getting captured and escaping in a dramatic, dangerous way like we always end up doing.

But then Max invited Ari to come with us and Fang got mad, like worse than his usual scary I'm-gonna-kill-you kind of mad, we're talking i'm-gonna-kill-you-and-bring-you-back-to-life-a-thousand-times-so-i-can-kill-you-over-and-over-again kind of mad. And then he took off and we had to choose which person to go with, Max or Fang! Iggy and Gazzy went with Fang and Angel and I went with Max and Ari and snuck into Itex's big headquarters in Germany and then Max had to fight this other experiment called Omega but luckily she won. Then we escaped and met back up with Fang and his mini-flock.

It also turned out Max's mom was alive and Max had even met her before! Then us merry band of mutants went to stay at Dr. Martinez (Max's mom)'s house with Jeb dropping over occasionally, apparently now he was 'good'. I was slower than the others to trust him at first but I guess if everyone is okay with him now...

Anyway, on with my morning! I woke up and fell out of the bed in the small bedroom i share with Ella and Angel, when we stay over at Dr. Martinez's house in Arizona. I shuffled down to the kitchen to be met with Iggy and The Gasman leaning over a small pink watch with various different coloured wires coming out of it, saying 'No, the blue to the green and the red to yellow, unless you want to be blown to Timbuktu!'

'Guys... It's too early in the morning to be planning your latest bomb or explosive device! Iggy, can i have pancakes for breakfast and maybe some golden syrup... do you ever wonder where golden syrup came from and why we ever invented it, why don't we have purple syrup or pink syrup 'cause that would look so much nicer and prettier with-'

A hand was slapped over my mouth by Iggy, with surprisingly good aim considering he's blind, and a deep voice coming from the living room saying, 'Lunch. It's one in the afternoon. You slept in,' well that's Fang for you... very short sentences 24/7.

It was then that i realised everyone was dressed except for me... Oops!

I peeled Iggy's thin, long, sensitive fingers away from my mouth and before i could start a long commentary on Fang's nine words, Angel wandered into the kitchen holding Total, who was wearing what looked suspiciously like the new hair clips that i bought last week in his hair (what?!), and said, 'Nudge, Jeb's here and he says get dressed 'cause he has big news and wants everyone to hear it ... especially you.'

My heart jumped in my chest and started beating so fast that i was surprised no one commented on it, i raced upstairs so fast i was practically a blur and for once i didn't care if i arrived down there naked I was in such a hurry, i grabbed a pair of light blue skinny jeans and a pink Abercrombie polo top, tried to run a brush through my unruly and impossibly frizzy brown hair which i absolutely hate but then I gave up before i broke the fourth brush this month and instead pulled it up into a messy bun.

It had been three months since I'd secretly asked Jeb to start trying to locate my real birth parents and i had almost given up hope that they would be found, but now maybe...

No! I tried to stop myself from getting too worked up telling myself it could just be a mistake that Jeb had pacifically mentioned me and it was probably nothing to do with my birth parents and this was just a stupid over-reaction and i was about to be bitterly disappointed. But i raced down the stairs so fast i missed the last step and didn't register the magazine I'd left at the top of the stairs yesterday, tripped, tumbled down the stairs and then went flying through the air and prepared to meet the ground instinctively throwing out one arm to catch myself...

Then gravity kicked in and I landed hard on the floor with my right wrist outstretched at an angle and, CRACK was the loud sound my wrist-bone made as it broke. I immediately doubled over in pain clutching my wrist close to my body as i screamed with the pain, trying desperately not to cry. I had broken bones loads of times but this felt like the worst break in a while and i could already feel the blood begin to soak my shirt as the bone had broken skin.

Fang and Iggy ran over and Fang lifted me onto the couch, the _expensive white leather_ couch, Iggy picked my arm up and started to feel the broken part with his particularly sensitive fingers. I screamed out in pain even louder, even though i knew he was being as gentle as he could be. Jeb ran over and put a big glass of something to my lips and told me to 'drink it all quickly now', so i gulped it down really quickly.

After i did i immediately knew that something was wrong, i could taste the drug in the liquid and started to thrash and shake, i wrenched my wrist out of Iggy's hands and started screaming and flailing around, i couldn't control myself or any part of my body and i couldn't see properly, it was like looking through a glazed window. Overall, it felt like someone was controlling me and trying to fight off the sedative that was slowly threatening to knock me unconscious.

I heard Gazzy and Angel screaming with fear as they had no idea what was happening to me, Iggy swearing as he tried to restrain me while i had some sort of scary fit and Fang yelling at Jeb demanding to know what exactly he had put in the drink. Apparently Max had come back from dropping Ella off at a friend's house because i faintly registered the sound of the front door opening and Max's gasp of alarm as she took in the scene unfolding before her eyes.

I started to slow down and my movements became more sluggish as the full effect of the drug took place. I slumped into the comfy leather of the couch and let the oncoming blackness take hold of me, i could feel the pain of my wrist begin to fade and suddenly i was gone, into the dark void of unconsciousness.

**Well.... What do you think....? Please review!  
Hopefully there will be another chapter up next Saturday or Sunday if people review.  
Umm... thanks for reading and PLEASE let me know what I can do to improve ******


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys.... I'm back here with chapter 2 where some of the action really starts!  
Thanks sooo much to ****dELLAirium ****and ****CoOkIeMoNsTeR222** **for being my very first ever reviewers!! Thanks so much for your advice and I made a big effort with my capital I's in this chapter –They didn't show up on spell-check!!!!-  
And again, to everyone who reads this PLEASE do not be afraid to point out mistakes or things I may have gotten wrong!**

**Enjoy!**

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Fang POV:

Today started out as an average kind of day at Dr. Martinez's house in Arizona. I woke up really early and slipped out of bed and skilfully dodged a snoring Iggy who fell out of bed and was currently sprawled on the floor next to Gazzy's blow-up mattress. I glanced at the clock and noticed it was only 1:23 ... Oh well I was up now anyway.

I glanced into the other spare room where Nudge and Angel slept when we stayed and almost grinned when I saw how the girls had pushed the beds together. However they were all currently squished onto the one bed with only one duvet between the two of them. Arms, legs and other various body parts were sticking out and Angel looked kind of cold so I scooped up another duvet and silently spread it out so it covered them both.

Then I slid down the banister to avoid the creaky stair, I could never remember which one it was, and made my way to the kitchen as quiet as a shadow. I saw a silhouette of someone in the kitchen and silently prepared to make a surprise attack if it turned out to be an eraser or another of our seemingly endless enemies... But as I rounded the corner, I let out a sigh of relief as I realised it was only Max, who was half asleep at the table with a glass of water.

'Max, what are you doing up at this time of the morning,' I asked a bit confused with my usual emotionless mask on.

'What? Oh it's you Fang, I just couldn't sleep so i came down and...' she answered sleepily and then promptly yawned and her eyes fluttered closed and her head drooped onto the table. I chuckled, which is rare for me, and then slowly picked Max up and with her in my arms, bridal style, and started to walk upstairs to the room she shared with Ella and gently placed her on the bed. I pulled the covers up over her sleeping form and watched as she rolled over and fell into a deeper sleep.

I was tempted to watch her sleep for the rest of the morning because she was so beautiful when she sleep, well I thought she was beautiful all the time, but if anyone saw me it would be _really_ awkward. Instead I went over to the big window in her room, opened it and paused to look back at sleeping Max, before throwing myself out into the night sky.

I snapped out my wings and soared upwards feeling the wind rushing past me. I wheeled around the dawn sky, enjoy the feeling of freeness. A flock of birds flew past and as I imitated their moments. Soon they started to let down their guard and after a while we were wheeling round in a circle, with me practicing the tricks we learnt off the hawks when we were rescuing Angel.

I had just let a rare half smile slip out when I heard my name being shouted loudly. 'Fang, come down, it's BREAKFAST!' I immediately returned to a blank mask of nothingness and reluctantly shot down towards the ground, pulling up at the last minute, landing on my feet before a smiling Angel.

'Hi Fang! Iggy's making pancakes and you'd better hurry before they're all gone!' she chirped happily, before skipping back to the house. I waited a moment, to look up at the birds I had shared my morning with, flying in loose formation away. I watched until they were almost out of sight before hurrying towards the house.

I entered the kitchen and almost got mowed down by Gaz who was sprinting back to the table with a plate stacked high with pancakes, somehow I knew it was not his first helping; I caught sight of Iggy by the stove juggling _four_ frying pans and a massive bowl of pancake batter, most of which seemed to be on his apron. Angel was tucked up on the sofa with another plate full of pancakes talking to Total who had a slightly smaller bowl of pancakes.

I whipped around as Ella laughed at something funny Max said, her plate of three pancakes looking absolutely _tiny _compared to Max's ten pancakes smothered with syrup, syrup and more syrup. Nudge was probably still in bed, I swear I don't know how anyone could sleep for that long every morning! I grabbed a plate, made my way over to Iggy and snagged the next seven pancakes.

After our pancake-pig-out as most normal humans would call it, I went and watched a horror movie in the living room, while Angel did Total's hair beside me. Call me irresponsible, but I wasn't worried about her watching it because all of us had seen much worse 'cause of our messed up child hood. Max went to drop Ella to a friend's house and do some grocery shopping since Dr Martinez was out of town for the weekend at some conference.

The moment Max was out of the door Iggy and Gaz dropped their things and started to build and fiddle with what looked like some sort of bomb that was concealed as a watch, the watch they were building it in looked suspiciously like Nudge's new 'Juicy Couture' one...

After about an hour of the movie Nudge stumbled down the stairs almost half asleep, with bright pink pyjamas with big pink fluffy slippers on. I half raised my eyebrows as I watched her shuffle to the kitchen.

I paused the movie and followed her in to find her in the middle of what was probably to be a _long_ rant about pancakes, breakfast and 'coloured syrup'(?) but luckily Ig shut her up by slapping his hand over her mouth and I said 'Lunch. It's one in the afternoon. You slept in.'

She freed her mouth from Iggy's fingers and took a deep breath but before she could start yet another rant, Angel saved us by coming in with a _very_ odd looking Total and said 'Nudge, Jeb's here and he says get dressed 'cause he has big news and wants everyone to hear it ... especially you!'

Nudge immediately bolted for the door and rushed upstairs at practically one hundred miles per hour. At the time I thought it was because she didn't want Jeb to see her in her pyjamas but I was so wrong.

We all assembled in the sitting room with Jeb and were all just waiting for Nudge, who would probably take half an hour to get changed and do her hair. But shockingly, she took a mere ten minutes to get changed and all the mutants in the room looked up in shock when we heard her running along the hallway on the second floor.

What happened next was almost in slow motion; we all saw it but couldn't do anything about it. She skidded round the corner to the stairs and slipped on the stupid magazine she left there yesterday and tripped, then she did a tumbling 'act' down the stairs and somersaulted through the air and landing with her right arm outstretched as if to catch herself. But she was falling too fast and we watched in horror as her wrist gave way beneath her with a sickening CRACK! Because she had broken it at such an angle, the bone pierced the skin and blood started to gush out as she curled up in a ball letting out a blood curdling cry.

Time fast forwarded up, I sprinted across the room and rushed her to couch with Iggy hot on my tail (or should I say wings). I placed her gently on the couch and Iggy picked up her wrist carefully but she screamed even louder. None of us had a break this bad in a while so I could only imagine how painful it was.

I was so occupied with trying to help Iggy with Nudge I didn't notice Jeb rushing in with a glass of cloudy looking water. By the time I saw him put something to her lips, it was too late. She drank it all in one gulp. She froze for a second and then started to scream a loud keening noise and have some sort of fit and thrash and shake around like she was possessed, her eyes glazed over as she wretched her arm away from Iggy's firm grip.

I had Jeb up against the wall, with his collar in my fist, in a second and yelling 'What the HELL did you put in the DAMNED drink!' when he did not reply I swung around and slammed him against a different wall and shouted as loud as I could 'Tell me NOW you back-stabbing cretin!'

When he still did not say anything, I solved it in my own way by punching Jeb repeatedly in the face until he lost unconsciousness and letting him fall to the ground. I whirled around to see Nudge slumped on the couch unconscious with her head in Iggy's lap. I realised Max had come home and was frantically checking Nudge's breathing which was too ragged and uneven and she was twitching as her eyeballs danced behind her eyelids.

_Damn..._

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**Uh, so there's another chapter gone and I guess I'll update either this weekend or next weekend!**

.......

Oh, and please anyone who can spare like 5 seconds ... REVIEW!!! 


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey everyone!  
Thanks to my reviewers for the last chapter – SexiLexiRoxDaSox, stripedpolkadots, CoOkIeMoNsTeR222 (again!) and Dibs On Fang He's So Hot! I love you guys so much for reviewing!!!!**

**I can't believe I forgot the disclaimer in the last chapters!**

**I do not own Maximum Ride...! **

* * *

I turned to Angel and Gaz, who were holding each other with tears streaming down their faces and terrified expressions on. I gestured to them to go into the kitchen but they didn't move, frozen in shock. I picked both of them up, one in each arm, and brought them through into the next room.

'You, guys stay here okay? Nudge is going to be fine, I promise. If she isn't I will personally rip Jeb to pieces,' I said to them, murmuring the last part darkly.

'Me too,' the Gasman said in a deadly voice, 'No one hurts my family and gets away with it!' I looked at him in surprise, I hadn't meant for him to hear it but he was right, Jeb had a lot of explaining to do, to all of us.

'Crap... she stopped breathing! Fang, we need help!' I heard Max shout with fear in her voice.

'Stay here guys!' I yelled to Angel and Gaz before sprinting to the couch where Max and Iggy were frozen in fear. _Damn, damn, damn, damn..._ I thought to myself. 'Ig, c'mon man chest compressions now!'

They snapped out of their trances and Iggy started pushing her chest to try and make her breathe, waiting for me to breathe in her mouth and then pushing again. After ten agonisingly long chest compressions, Nudge drew in a deep raggedy breath and then started to breathe slow, uneven breaths.

'Yes!' Iggy yelled loudly, punching a fist in the air as soon as he heard her quiet breathing with his ultra sensitive hearing. Out of nowhere Nudge began to hotter and hotter under my hand; her skin was practically burning me. I jumped away, caught by surprise and heard Iggy yelling with surprise as he too started to get burned by Nudge. Iggy slowly extracted himself from her and lay her head on the couch and then ran into the kitchen and came back followed by Angel and Gaz with a glass of water which he then poured on Nudge's forehead.

We all watched (with the exception of Ig of course) to see if it would help but it dried almost immediately with a hissing noise. 'Well, crap... again' Max said, her forehead screwed up in confusion and worry.

'We need Ella,' Angel suddenly said timidly, 'She should be here!' I exchanged a look with Max with one eyebrow raised in a question. She nodded ever so slightly back.

'I'll go,' I said striding towards the door, 'Address?' Max quickly gave it to me and I jumped into the air, my purple-black wings working quickly to get to Ella's friend's house in time... I hoped I wasn't too late already.

I got to my destination, landing behind some trees and hurrying to the door. I pounded on the door three times and waited impatiently, even though I didn't show it on my face. Two faces, 'hidden' behind a curtain peeked out at me and when they saw who I was, rushed off. 'Be there in a minute!' a voice yelled out followed by some high pitched giggling. After seven minutes and twenty-two seconds, the door finally opened to reveal a girl with her make-up done in a hurry, the lipstick was smeared, and a _very_ short skirt, which was on back to front.

'Is Ella here?' I said quietly. The girl looked annoyed that I was asking for Ella and not her but she led me in to a sitting room where six thirteen year olds sat watching a movie. They paused it the minute I walked in and all turned to ogle at me, looking me up and down with what seemed to be approval. I scanned them all for Ella but couldn't find her anywhere.

The door to what i assumed to be a kitchen opened and Ella walked in saying 'What's up guys?' but stopped once she saw me and immediately knew something was up. 'Fa- I mean Nick -so your Abigail's mystery hottie...- What are you doing here?' The girl, who I assumed to be Abigail, blushed a _deep_ scarlet and buried her face in a pink fluffy pillow.

'Emergency. We need you. Now.' I answered ignoring the stares of the other girls. I started striding quickly to the door and stopped to look back at a confused Ella who hadn't moved.

'Wait, F-Nick, what's the emergency? What's wrong?'

'Uh... Monique. It's serious. Let's go.' I answered letting my frustration show, for all I knew it could be too late for Nudge already! Her eyes widened and she hurried to my side. I grabbed her hand and started to walk really fast towards the door.

'Wait Ella your shoes! It's wet outside!' One of her friends called out. I swung her up into my arms, bridal style, and half ran out the doors and towards the trees to take off. I ignored the gasps of all her friends when they saw her in my arms.

'Umm, I guess I'll get them later.... Sorry it's really an emergency. Bye guys! Yes Abigail, I'll ring you later and give you all the details about F-Nick later,' I scowled at that part. 'And yeah, I know that part wasn't meant to be said aloud! See you guys later!' Ella yelled back over my shoulder.

I got to the trees and, making sure no one could see me, jumped straight into the air my wings snapping out and working powerfully. Ella screamed, not expecting it but I ignored her and worked to rise higher out of sight. I flew home as fast as I could; all the while hoping I was not too late. I landed and still carrying Ella, ran into the house. I panicked when I couldn't see or hear anyone.

'Fang, we're upstairs... quick!' Gazzy's voice rang out in the silence. I sprinted upstairs to the bathroom, pausing for a split second to kick Jeb, who was moaning on the floor, hard in the ribs, and saw Nudge lying in the bathtub (fully dressed) in order to try and get her scarily high fever down; the water was slowly turning pink with the blood from her wrist. I dipped a finger in; the water was lukewarm and was getting hotter and hotter with her rising body temperature.

'Ella, what do we do? Ella, c'mon focus on me. Good. Now, what would Mom do if she was here?' Max said quickly to a hyperventilating Ella who looked like she was going into shock at the sight of Nudge who looked practically half dead.

'Umm, okay Moms vet stuff is in her room.' She ran off and came back with a massive bag full of medical stuff. 'Oh! And she bought a load of things for in case you guys get hurt.' She grabbed Gaz and ran off again. We heard a lot of banging and crashing and finally they arrived back up with their arms full of first-aid kits for all sorts of purposes. She dumped it on the floor, opened the bathroom cabinet and pulled out a big book.

'Okay Iggy, can you set her wrist?'

'On it.' Iggy tenderly picked up her wrist and gently skimmed over it with his sensitive fingers. 'Hmm...'He muttered as he tried to figure out the best way to fix it. Carefully he slid the bone back in and set it carefully. 'Uh, anyone have a needle and thread or whatever? Her wound needs stitches...' Ella wordlessly rummaged in the bag and came up with those stick-on stitches. Iggy put them on and reached his hand out for a roll of bandage. Then he wound it round and round her arm until you couldn't see the bright red blooming bloodstains.

'Hey guys! She is starting to cool down now; I think we can take her out of the tub.' Gazzy cut in. We all whipped round to face Nudge. She was indeed getting colder at an alarming rate and her arms were starting to get goose bumps. I grabbed a towel and Iggy picked her up and placed her in it with creepy accurateness for a blind dude. Max then carefully wrapped it around her and our little 'procession' made its way into the girls room. Thankfully the beds were still wedged together so I laid her down in the middle of the beds.

'Well, what now?' Iggy said turning to face the area where he thought Ella was... it was really a lamp shade...

'Ummm, that's all I really thought of now, Max?' Iggy whirled round, trying to make it seem like he knew where Ella was the whole time. It didn't work.

'That's all we can really do for now so... Umm guys, Me, Fang and Ig are going to go and get some serious answers from Jeb so Ange, Gaz and Ella, you guys are going to watch Nudge and if anything, I mean _anything_ changes, call us immediately.' I felt another burst of affection in my chest... Max just knew how to take charge like that... Crap, I did _not_ just think that, okay Angel?

_**Whatever you want to think Fang, but for the record you and Max are sooo cute together! **_Angel thought to me.

_Not the right time Ange. Nudge is hurt and I gotta go beat the crap outta Jeb!_

_**Sorry Fang...**_Angel mentally told me in a taunting way.

Ignoring her Max, Ig and I stalked down-stairs ready to pulverise Jeb into obliviation if he didn't have one hell of a good excuse for why my 'sister' was lying upstairs unconscious after having some sort of fit and showing no signs of getting even slightly better... He was going to pay.

**Well............. How did I do?  
Only way to tell me is by REVIEWING!!**

**Please don't be afraid of correcting my grammar, mistakes or anything else you can think of! You guys can leave any suggestions or guess what you think might happen if you want!**

**REVIEWS make me happy! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's chapter 4 guys!**

Max POV:

I was going to KILL Jeb and bring him back to life just to kill him again. I saw red as I stomped down the stairs with Fang and Ig. Then I spied that traitor moaning on the floor clutching his ribs.

_Good one Fang._ I thought when I saw his bloodied mess of a face. I grabbed him and threw him into the wall with such force I'm surprised he didn't black out again. Fang then snatched his collar and threw Jeb hard into the coffee table.

'Wait guys, we actually need him conscious to interrogate him.... then we can beat the crap out of him.' Iggy's logical voice cut through our 'kill Jeb' tirade. Fang sighed and picked Jeb up by his collar and lobbed him in the direction of the couch. He 'missed' and Jeb landed on the floor, cracking his jaw against the side table.

'Spill,' Fang said in a deadly voice, staring at Jeb with such a cold stare that even I can't pull off. Iggy had equally a scary stare which was creepy because he was staring at the _exact_ position of Jeb's gray eyes.

'Now, guys i can explain –'he started to say in slow calm voice with blood trickling out his mouth from his jaw wound. Fang cracked his knuckles with murder in his eyes and Iggy took a menacing step forward. He quickly sped up his speech.

'What the _hell_ was in that drink you gave Nudge?' I said in an ice-cold voice with my scary eyes that creep the rest of the flock out most of the time.

'Maximum, I keep trying to tell you, the only thing in that drink was dissolved painkiller...'

'Uh, good try Jeb – not! Now what happened to Nudge!'

'Okay Max, really, uh, I don't know. The only explanation is, well it's hardly likely, is that Itex might have given her some sort of power surge, I guess you could call it. We went through it a few years back and everyone decided against it because it was _far_ too dangerous and no one really knew what it would do.' He cleared his throat nervously. 'You see, a power surge is when a micro chip implanted in your bodies –invisible to x-rays – is suddenly re-boosted and the hybrid with the chip is either killed or... well it never worked so we don't know what the positive outcome would be...'

I felt my legs collapse under me, Fang caught me and I fell onto the couch feeling numb. 'Nudge...' I heard myself whisper hollowly.

'What signs did the experiments show before they... died?' Iggy choked out, his voice cracking like a twig at the end.

'Well, I'll have to examine her before I say anything.' Jeb said purposely marching up the stairs to where one of our family members could be on their deathbed. I forced my legs to move and breathing fast I followed him. We reached the bedroom where Angel, Gaz and Ella were pressed together with wide eyes having heard our whole conversation. I reached over to give them a hug before turning to Jeb.

'I'm sorry guys... it doesn't look good. In fact it looks exactly the same to the others; I'd give her maybe... a day, day and a half.'

Angel burst out crying, as did Gaz and Ella. I sobbed into my hands and I saw tears stream from Iggy's sightless eyes. Fang gently sat down on the bed and smoothed Nudge's frizzy hair down with long fingers, his head dropped and I saw a crystal tear fall onto Nudge's almost gray face.

_No, no, no this can't be happening... I'll wake up and this will all be a horrible dream. Nudge will be up and talking way too much and sleeping in, being a normal sometimes moody teenager... our family will be perfectly complete again and, and now I'm rambling on again like how Nudge used to... No, no, no!_

I managed to pull myself together somewhat to hear Gazzy's raw and chocked voice whisper 'Will-will she wake u-u-up?'

The reply came back and I sobbed even harder. **'**_**It's not likely'**_replayed again and again in my head. _Why, why, why did it have to happen to my family? _

For the rest of the day we sat around the bed, not moving just watching her live what could be her last few hours. No one said a word and the only noise came from our muffled sobs. Iggy sat cross-legged on the floor beside Angel and Gaz who were clutching tight onto each other each sobbing their little hearts out. I was wrapped tight up in Fang's stone arms and I could feel him silently shaking from time to time.

After around six hours, no one was really counting; Nudge began coughing violently, a real hacking throat wreaking cough. We all rushed to her side and tried to think of something to do. 'Uh, uh, uh, uh....' I stammered really scared that now might be her time. Jeb had gone out to get something and Ella had tagged along to give us some alone time with Nudge; no one really listened to him explain whatever they needed to do.

At that exact moment Nudge's pale eyelids fluttered weakly open. I gasped and felt weak at the knees, my baby was waking up! She tried to prop herself up on her shoulders and I opened my mouth to tell her to please stop before she hurt herself even more but Gazzy beat me to it. 'Nudge, don't move.... you had a, uh, an accident.' He said gently with hope evident in his voice.

'M-m-m-max' she gasped. I nodded furiously and grabbed her hand tightly. 'I feel weird and.... and I don't think I'm going to be okay.' She whispered weakly.

'Look Nudge, I wish I could say that I'm sure you will get through this but I can't. However, the fact that you're even conscious is a major plus and I can't guarantee it's not going to hurt or be hard but I can guarantee that whatever the outcome, which probably will turn out fine, we will always love you and you'll always be my little fashion diva.' I finished with tears in my eyes.

'B-but what h-happened?'

'You were given a 'power surge' from The School and your body is either going into shock or..... Or rejecting it.' Fang whispered slowly, all of us wincing from the sentence we didn't want to hear.

'Don't panic baby, we'll fight this together and then everything will be fine and we'll be fine and you won't have to worry about this because it'll all be fine and-' I cut myself short realizing I was rambling in panic and fear of what might happen if everything did not turn out fine.

'Yeah, we'll get through it together as a _family,'_ Angel added and together we all leaned in to gently hug her. Suddenly she started shaking, small tremors at first but it developed into huge body jerking tremors. Nudge screamed a pure long high scream full of the most unimaginable pain ever. We were all frozen with shock and terror. Again.

_Is this it....?_ My thoughts ran wild.

Finally she stopped and drew in a shaky breath. 'I don't think I'll be here for much longer,' she whispered softly. 'Max, I think- I think I'm going to go or whatever now.'

'No Nudge! Don't say things like that! You can't- you can't leave...' Angel threw herself on her sobbing uncontrollably and looking more upset than I had ever seen her. Ever. Fang carefully extracted Angel from her and held her gently rubbing her back as she cried and hiccupped into his shoulder.

Nudge closed her eyes for a moment and seemed to be trying to restrain herself from screaming aloud again in pain again. 'Max, you are the best ever, a fantastic leader. Fang, you're one of the best fighters I know but try and smile a bit more, for me. Ig, you rock and are the best blind blower-upper dude in the whole world. Gaz, you're the best little brother and 8 year old pyrotechnic I could ever have. Angel.... you are my best friend ever. I love you all so much but I don't think I'm not strong enough to beat this thing...' Nudge trailed off twitching and jerking from the pain.

She started chocking again and blood started gushing out of her mouth as she coughed violently. Fang rushed over and held a wad of tissue to her mouth while Ig helped her into a sitting position. The rest of us just watched in shock and horror as she slowly lost consciousness still coughing.

Nudge's whole body suddenly tensed up and I saw Fang and Iggy exchange a worried glance before lowering her onto the bed carefully. She sucked in one last shuddering forced breath and then stopped. She just stopped breathing.

_No!_

The room was quiet for a moment, all of us terrified and frozen hoping to hear another breath. It didn't come. For about ten seconds no one moved then we all were a flurry of activity. Ig and Fang started doing chest compressions and CPR like their lives depended on it, using that genetically enhanced speed all the while communicating in low, fast _really_ worried voices. Angel started screaming in terror and Gaz started to hyperventilate and squeeze my hand because he was too scared to make any noise. I sprung into action, grabbing the phone and punching Jeb's numbers like there was no tomorrow, because for Nudge that was fast on its way to becoming reality.

'Gaz, get mom on the phone.... Now!' I roared at him, now terrified because Nudge wasn't breathing yet. He fumbled with the phone and I heard it go straight to voice mail. Jeb wasn't answering either. 'No!' I screamed because almost two minutes had passed and the guys hadn't had any progress.

Then the windows exploded.

**Well? How did I do everyone...? I hope that was okay, I've been working on the middle part all week but I'm still not 100% happy with it..........**

**If I get loads of reviews I will update faster!!!  
So spare like 2 seconds and tell me what I can improve on or your thoughts and feelings on the story so far!!! (I do take any suggestions!)**

**Peace out people ....**


	5. Chapter 5

Third Person POV:

Jeb hated lying to Maximum and the rest of the flock. But it was the only way to ensure Maximum's safety. They had blackmailed him horribly.

Max, his only daughter, or the black girl called Nudge.

The school needed one of them to take part in a very important experiment, one that could potentially change the world. Jeb couldn't let them take Max. She was too valuable to the flock and she was his only daughter. Nudge on the other hand...

She was of no real value to anyone with an attitude and a probable brain malfunction that caused her to talk constantly. Her 'flock' found her chatter unbearable and her combat skills were sadly less than expected. China or Japan might be willing to pay a small price for her at the moment but when Itex were done with her every company in the world be hammering their door down demanding experiment n45627.

The fact that Nudge, the experiment in question, had approached him to find her parents made his mind up for good. She was going to leave them anyway if her search for parents had succeeded so this way Jeb was giving the flock the gift of thinking she was dead instead of thinking she abandoned them forever. Really Jeb should be given some gratitude for all the planning and strategies he had cleverly thought up. He hadn't given a second thought or even attempted to find out the experiment's parents.

The dangerous serum Jeb had slipped into the drink had been in his pocket for weeks just waiting for the right moment to be used. It was, in fact, a new invention of Itex's. The possibly fatal concoction of chemicals made up a cloudy liquid which made the drinker immobile for forty-eight hours and would also make their heart-beat, pulse and breathing slow down to be almost undetectable to most machines.

This meant to the flock, she would seem completely dead. It was the perfect idea and Jeb was proud to say he had a part in it. He could be one of the lucky people to change the future and go down as a hero. And only one person had to be sacrificed, Nudge. She wouldn't die, hopefully, but her whole life would never be the same after she touched the glass of 'safe' poison to her lips.

There was one tiny –okay MASSIVE- problem, this liquid had only been tested five times and during those tests four of the experiments hadn't lived. This was a massive gamble...

When Max, Fang and Iggy had charged down to interrogate him, Jeb had had to make up a false story on the spot. Not one of his best skills under pressure. He had stammered and made up a completely ridiculous story that he had been surprised Max had bought. However being told a member of your family was dying tended to make a person overlook some details.

When Nudge started showing signs of accepting the serum Jeb had immediately hurried out to alert the back-up team. Unfortunately Ella Martinez followed him so Jeb had to knock her out and hide her unconscious form under some bushes a distance away from the house. She should wake up a few hours later with no recollection of the events.

Oh how Jeb loved to be a part of Itex's inner circle... He had _such_ power.

**Hello my loyal reviewers! And 'sup...' to anyone who is reading this for the first time!  
This is a small bonus chapter for the curious people out there who reviewed!**

**So please REVIEW! Seriously any new readers review and let me know what you think!**

**Peace out dudes...**


	6. Chapter 6

Fang POV'  
Iggy and I worked furiously to try and save Nudge. I was scared out of my mind even though I tried not to let it show. I heard Angel scream with fear for Nudge and Max yelling for Gazzy to get Dr. M on the phone and crying out in frustration and desperation when it didn't work. I tuned it all out and focused on getting air into Nudge's lungs. We didn't lose hope when we passed three minutes and she hadn't moved or showed any signs of living. We just kept on going because nothing had gone right in our lives and this was the one thing I was _not_ going to screw up.

_No, no.... take me instead please not Nudge, not our Nudge. Please, please..... _I chanted in my head over and over. Iggy and I exchanged a worried glance, like _really worried_ glance. This was not good.

Then the windows exploded.

Out of nowhere Erasers started pouring in through the window and door. The twisted, evil kind that hunt us... Not the little pink things that you find on the tops of pencils. I continued to try and save her while the rest jumped into fighting crouches around us in a semi-circle of protection. I heard grunts and groans of pain and some serious butt-kicking action being carried out. When I heard Gaz cry out in pain I yelled for Iggy to 'cover for me, man' and leapt into the fight.

The minute I dove in I could tell we weren't going to win. There was too many of them and too little of us. I punched one in the face letting all my worry, anxiousness and anger out at once and then spun around to cover Angel who was trying to take three at once and mind control seven. I hit and ducked and dived for what seemed like eternity. It was in fact only around eight minutes.

I felt the hairy arms wrap around my arms and I freaked out. But before i could scream I felt ten more restraining me. A frantic glance at the others showed the rest being held back and a cursing and yelling Iggy being dragged away from a still motionless Nudge.

_Nudge... No!_

We were all crying out in fear and desperation for Nudge. I roared my loudest when the hairiest one roughly stuffed her small limp body into a black sack and flung it over his shoulders.

'No! Damn it.... Take me instead please! Let go of her you filthy bast-!' I was silenced by a dirty hand-paw-like-thing slapped onto my mouth. I couldn't let them take her! I bucked all my strength and fought with a frenzied panic visible in my eyes. I could see Ig and Max doing the same. Angel and Gazzy had given up though. They stared at the bag with a sadness and loss in their eyes that no eight or six year old should have.

'No! Don't take her damnit! Max, Fang, _anyone_ just do something, save her.... I'm blind! Let go of me you filthy dog! C'mon guys do something!'

'Shut UP! The freak's DEAD! D-e-a-d do you hear me?' The one holding my neck growled in an attempt to get us to stop struggling. The leader holding the sack gave it a hard kick and then threw it roughly against the wall to prove his point. The sack remained still, without a single movement.

'Let me go you idiots! Nudge isn't dead... STOP! Give her back to us! Nudge, honey, fight back, please c'mon! No you can't be dead! N-N-Nudge!-' Max broke off sobbing and fell limp in her captor's arms.

I also stopped fighting my Eraser's tight headlock... there was simply no point, Nudge was dead and I had failed to save her. That was all that mattered. My failure.

Iggy however, was still raging and out for blood. He heard us give up and that seemed to fuel his strength. He bucked, fought, kicked and twisted in a frantic attempt to save Nudge.

'Don't give up; it's going to be fine! NUDGE! Come back!' Iggy yelled in a desperate attempt to get us fighting once again. 'C'mon guys! Don't let them win!'

But my body felt numb and I couldn't bring myself to fight knowing I'd failed. The one thing I'd vowed not to do wrong and I couldn't even do that. I practically killed her myself. I was such a failure.

Max POV:

As Ig kept struggling without stopping, one Eraser morphed back and produced five long syringes filled with a purple solution.

_Oh no.... Purple is always a bad colour!_

The evil creature, in beautiful human form, advanced on the two smaller members of the flock who were sobbing uncontrollably in sadness and fear. I tried to yell out but my throat was closed up in anguish. They screamed with pain as he shoved the needles mercilessly into their arms. Angel slipped into unconsciousness quickly but Gaz took one long desperate look at the sack where our Nudge lay before his eyes too rolled into the back of his head.

Next it was Iggy, he heard the footsteps coming his way and guessed what was happening. 'I love you Nudge!' where his final words before he too was thrown roughly onto the floor out cold.

Then Fang... he resisted the sedative for as long as he could before he too was knocked out. I saw him mouth the words _I'll always remember you Nudge _at the lifeless sack that held our favourite African-American-mocha-coloured-eleven-year-old-bird-kid in the whole world.

Then there was me... To my surprise I wasn't injected like the rest. I had to endure something much worse than the remaining flock. The monsters tied me to a chair with a special form of string that was _super_ strong and left a special type of scissors to cut it just out of reach. They arranged my flock around the bed so when they woke up the first thing they would see would be the empty bed with a few splattered bloodstains.

My punishment was one of the worst things I have ever gone through in my life. They dragged the chair over to the window and then, painstakingly slowly, flew away waving the sack at me. I cried for hours, cursing my life and raptor eyesight that allowed me to watch them taking my baby's body far into the distance, further than a normal human would have been able to see. I couldn't look away because they tied my head onto the back of the chair, forcing me to watch the horizon and eventually the sun setting with streaks of bright red. Red like the blood of the person we just couldn't save this time.

Fang was the first to wake. I heard stirring to my right but I couldn't turn my head to see who it was but I knew it was him the same way a mother knows her baby's cry. I just knew my flock. They were my best friends. They were all I had. And now one was gone forever.

He moaned before stirring and when I heard his almost inaudible gasp of horror I knew he had opened his eyes and seen the horrible scene. He stumbled over to me and I just stared at him with blank eyes. I was too numb to cry or do anything. I felt his fingers tremble as he tried to break the string with his hands.

'They took her. They took our Nudge. S-s-she's gone...' I whispered, my voice coming out cracked and strained from my hours of crying. 'They made me watch them take her away... I couldn't save her Fang.'

Fang found the scissors and cut me free. 'None of us could...' His voice was raw and full of emotion. He helped me up and as if I was on auto-pilot, I went round and checked the others who were still out cold. Iggy woke up when I was checking his breathing and started to struggle. When he realised it was me he stopped and the details of the last twenty-four hours began to sink in.

'Nudge... No! Damn it, is she gone?' He asked in a tortured voice. When I didn't reply, he grabbed my shoulders and shook me hard. 'Is she gone? Damnit tell me... I'm blind I can't see!'

'S-she's gone Ig...' Fang said quietly.

He released me and sat breathing heavily for a few minutes before he got up and punched the wall, leaving a hole. 'Nudge.... Why. Did. They. Take. You.... Damn. It.' He yelled punctuating each word with a punch, leaving the wall looking like a family of gofers lived there. He then let out a roar of pain and loss so loud that I had to cover my ears. Iggy then 'deflated' and clutching his head as if in great pain, he slid down the wall until he was on his knees. Then he started to sob great heart wrenching sobs that ripped my soul in two. Normally I would have teased him but this was different... We all felt the exact same.

I turned away so he wouldn't think I was intruding on his moment of weakness. I lasted about twenty seconds and then I couldn't hold it any longer. I rushed over to him and flung myself on him and started sobbing like there was no tomorrow. He resisted at first but I felt him soften up and hug me back tightly. A few minutes Fang joined us, wrapping his strong, muscled arms around me, supporting me. Angel and Gaz were still unconscious so I treasured the moment with the two people on earth that probably knew me better than I did. We all cried with no one was denying the fact that we were all hurting so bad inside.

When I heard Gaz start to stir, moaning a little bit, I tried to get it together. I was flock leader. I was supposed to be invincible and know everything. I was supposed to save my flock when they were in trouble. But somehow I failed with Nudge...

We all somewhat pulled ourselves together and when Gaz opened his eyes his head was in my lap and he was embraced into a tight hug. After a few minutes Angel was pulled into my arms. I wish I could say that when Ella walked in a daze and when mom came home we were all fine. But I would be lying. Don't get me wrong I lie _all_ the time. It's one of my best skills.... I could put it on my CV, if I had one. But this didn't seem like the kind of thing I should lie about.

Anyway we were all wreaks and it took mom and Ella a week to find out the proper details of Nudge's death. It was very obvious that something was terribly wrong when they walked in on five birdkids sobbing their eyes out and the guest room covered in blood. The couch had large crimson pools of dried blood added to its white leather exterior and all the upstairs windows were smashed in. We were all huddled around the two beds squished together and the walls were filled with gopher-like holes due to Iggy's extreme grief.

_Oh Nudge..._

**And that's another chapter gone! Thanks to all reviewers for the last chapters.... Especially you, Constant-Rae-of-Sunshine!**

**Please REVIEW any new people..... I swear it makes me write faster! Feel free to leave suggestions, corrections, things you want to see happen... ANYTHING!**

**I probably won't be able to update tomorrow because it's my cousins christening –I'm godmother! - And I'll be busy.... So until next week!**

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	7. Chapter 7

Fang POV (three months later):

The first few months were pure _hell._ Max sunk into a trance like state, Iggy wrecked a good few rooms with his violent response to the immense grief, Gaz and Angel cried every night and fell asleep wrapped in each other's arms as if afraid one of them would disappear. Me, well I went into a kinda state of self-hate and depression that only the flock noticed. I didn't talk for a whole two months, well less than usual. I'm kind over that stage now but I still know her death was partially my fault.

We couldn't even have a damn funeral because the demons took her body far away. We, the flock, had a memorial service; I guess you can call it that, in a meadow filled with flowers and daisies, which she loved. It was- well it's just too painful think or even talk about. We just said- _No, don't go there... Don't even think about those few days._

Dr. Martinez had sold the house within about three weeks; it caused us all too much pain. We now lived in Virginia where we all still were heartbroken but Iggy hadn't smashed any walls in the week so far and we were all slowly and painfully healing. Jeb was called away for a work thing the day after the 'incident' which I thought was a _tad_ suspicious but we had already had a discussion between ourselves and we couldn't really do anything about it anyway since he'd already gone. But still, it got me thinking some nights...

We were all sitting down to dinner one day in silence. Silence Nudge would have filled. Sadness hung over us all as we ate gloomily, not making eye contact until Dr. Martinez broke the news too us.

'Now guys, I know this has been hard for you loosing Nudge but I think it may be time to move on with life... I've enrolled you all in a new school –don't worry it's not the one you went to with Anne- and you start on Monday with Ella. Your uniforms are upstairs and, um, there's pie for dessert...?'

Every head snapped around to face her immediately, only Ella's remained fixed on her plate with a guilty expression; so she had been in on this.

'Wh-what did you just say?' Iggy asked in disbelief.

I slammed my palms down flat on the table, rising up to tower above everyone else who was sitting down in shock, or in Dr. Martinez's situation, fear at the sight of me at my scariest. She and Ella had never really seen me properly mad, but oh, was she going to get it now for trying to erase Nudge from our lives. 'Did you seriously just suggest we forget Nudge?' I whispered in a deadly voice. 'Because I swear to goodness if you did I'm walking out that door and _never_ coming back.' I was giving her my death-glare as Nudge used to call it. I knew I was over-reacting but I was too far gone. All the anger and anguish I kept pent up over the last months was all coming out at once.

'I-I-I-I didn't m-mean to s-say that F-Fang...' Dr. Martinez was now petrified of me. Good. 'B-but when people die it's sad, b-but we also need to learn to m-move on...?'

I could feel Max glancing between me and her mother, predicting whether the situation was going to end in violence. Iggy was standing beside me, eyes equally as full of fury as mine. The kids were holding each other's hands but their eyes told the story of whose 'side' they were on. Mine. Ella was trembling looking at me with fear.

I could hear a part of me yelling out to shut up and sit back down, but I was too far gone now. Even if I had stopped I knew Ig would have finished it off. My eyes were now truly in scary-Fang mode. My hands were in tight fists and my teeth were tightly clenched. It felt good to be scary and threatening again even if it was to my almost-girlfriend/best friend's real mom who had taken us into her house even though she had practically no idea about any one of us and fed us, clothed us, and well.... generally looked after us even though we were probably putting her in a terribly dangerous position.

Oh crap... When you put it like that I sounded like a terrible person. Damn.

Anyway I was seeing red and full of adrenaline and anger. For a few minutes Dr. Martinez and I had a staring battle. My eyes were murderous and full of raw emotion not showed on my face, hers full of actual fear.

Max laid a gentle hand on my shoulder, indicating for me to back down and walk away before anyone got hurt. By anyone she meant her mom. I punched the table hard; left a hole actually, threw a chair across the room and stalked out the door nearly knocking it off its hinges.

'Need to think.' Were the only words that left my lips as I launched myself into the air. I didn't care if anyone heard me, I was leaving for a few hours or however long it took to calm down and let it all out.

_**Please come back soon... Don't leave forever. **_A timid voice cut through my anger and grief like a knife. I needed to sort think some things through and only return to the house when I was sure I wouldn't hurt Dr. Martinez.

_I promise Ange, I just gotta do some... stuff._

I have trust issues with people to say the least. Even though I've known Max's mom for about a year and yeah, I like and respect her but I don't fully trust her. I don't open up to anyone except Max and sometimes the rest of the flock. Things had changed since 'that night'. We needed to get away from everything and become just The Flock again.

Since the night they took Nudge away from us, we haven't been alone for a whole day without Dr. Martinez, Ella or any other fully human stressing us, well mainly me (remember that trust 'issue'). I realise Dr. M just assumed we were ready too fast but I reacted and just kinda blew my top... Grrr my damn emotions.

I was calm in the air but when I touched the bark of that unfortunate tree somewhere in a far away forest, I exploded. Again. This time my outburst was physical. I screamed aloud, swore, cursed about everyone I knew and then some- Let's just say that for a few hours that tree became my punch bag.

I punched the poor tree over and over until when I looked down at my hands all I could see was a sea of blood. But I was still too numb. I needed to really _feel_ the pain and know what was real in my life. How I got from punching a tree to discovering my philosophy, I have no idea. But somehow I managed to.

My body still wasn't feeling the pain yet so I kept at it for another couple of hours. At last I had to stop, defeated. My clothes were covered in my blood and I felt kind of faint. I didn't have the energy or will to try so I let my body fall to the ground... Turned out the drop was much longer than I expected, not that I cared. The more physical pain I caused unto myself, the less mental pain I could hope to feel.

I simply just fell asleep then. When I woke up I was covered in leaves and my clothes crackled with dried blood from last night as I got up. A quick inspection showed my stupidity in not stopping my tree-punching last night. I wouldn't be able to use my hands for bout a day and a half now. Damn. The entire surface of my hands and up my arms had been severely scratched and by the looks of it I need serious stitches like everywhere. Not that I would get them though; obviously. No one was getting _near_ me with a needle of any sort.

I rolled my shoulders and prepared to take off. I guessed I had to go back to the others eventually. Jumping into the air I felt the whole of my body groan and protest in pain.

Note to self: rethink decisions involving punching trees, sleeping on forest floors after purposely falling out of said trees and walking out on dinner and pie more clearly next time.

To be honest I didn't go straight back. I stayed in the forest for most of the day gaining the courage to go back and face my family after my, uh, breakdown the previous night. When it started getting dark I forced myself into the air and began the journey home.

It was around two in the morning when I reached the house. I hovered outside my window for ages and finally flitted over to Max's window when I couldn't figure out how to open the window from the outside without smashing it in. I rapped, painfully, three times on her window with the drawn curtains and waited for her to wake.

She was surprisingly quick in opening the window which made me think she had been staying up, waiting for me. Her gasp of horror when she saw my bloodied clothes and limp, torn up hands made me smirk a bit.

She practically dragged me inside and forced me down on the bed, silently as to not wake the others. It didn't work and soon the rest of the flock were gathered round me, hugging me and in Ig's case smacking me upside the head saying, 'Dude! I thought punching inanimate objects and purposely breaking my hands was _my_ job!'

I cracked a half grin at that, Iggy's hands had been constantly bandaged for weeks after_ that_ night because he kept punching holes in walls and making his hand wounds open up again. Every day the cuts on his hands would heal somewhat and then he would angry or the sadness would get hold of him and he'd be off punching and fighting walls again.

I noticed his right fist was bandaged, again. _Iggy, Iggy, Iggy_. I would have to ask Max what happened last night, I thought to myself.

Dr. Martinez hovered in the hallway and Ella stayed at the door, both afraid I would snap again. After Max was done a fussing, giving Iggy direction on how to bandage my hands and telling me to 'Shut up, sit down and let us fix your damnit hands!' I walked slowly to where Dr. M sat on the chair in the hall.

She stood up, body tense. I opened my mouth and said...

**Hey guys! Wow, this week was a really good cause I got a lot of nice reviews from you guys! Thanks to:  
- lunareclipse3  
- stripedpolkadots  
- Dibs On Fang He's So Hot  
- Constant-Rae-of-Sunshine  
- 'sorry I didn't log in'  
**_**You guys are the best!**_

**I got some people saying the story was kinda depressing... Sorry! This chapter is too but I've planned some humour in the next chapter – preview: *Max* 'I decided to make them all breakfast to cheer them up....... damn it! I was going to make them breakfast whether the food liked it or not! '**

**Also you guys were wondering 'bout the possible Niggy that may come. I'm still not sure where I'm going with that so PLEASE review and tell me what you think about that...**

**And finally, to any new people.... PLEASE REVIEW! If i get more reviews than last week this week I'll post an early chapter on, possibly, Thursday.**

**So you know what to do, press that review button!**

**Peace out fanfictioners! **


	8. Chapter 8

Max POV:

After Fang stormed out dramatically, though I couldn't blame him for doing that because I knew if he hadn't Iggy or I would have blown, everyone was silent. The chair he had flung across the room had landed on the side table. It collapsed immediately on impact and the picture frames that were placed on it shattered.

Everyone was silent, Mom and Ella frozen in pure fear. Gaz stood up and walked slowly over to the broken picture frames, his sneakers crunching the broken glass. We all watched as he singled out one of the pictures and brushed the glass of it. He hugged it to his chest and suddenly I knew which picture it was.

In the picture, we were all crowded around a table filled with goodies and junk food. It was Angel's seventh birthday and the flock's faces showed their happiness and joy, the whole flock. Nudge was looking beautiful in a short black dress and sparkly shoes. It was her first dress and she loved it. I had just handed her the Max Ride card and she ran into the shop and came out hours later delighted with the outfit she had gotten completely by herself.

I didn't even think Mom had kept the picture. But she had and it was in a place of honour along with Ella's school photos and different family events we weren't around for. Angel tiptoed over to him and slowly slid her arms around Gazzy. Soon we were all in the embrace. Well, all of us except Mom, Ella and Fang.

_Fang. God I hope he's okay... _I thought with a heavy heart. He had been so closed off, even more than normal when Nudge died. I think he blamed himself. We all had issues but Mom had just assumed we were ready too soon. And now the hole that had slowly started to heal had been punched though twice as hard.

I never really thought about what we would do now that she was gone. We would have to continue on with our lives, I realised with a start. But it just seemed so... wrong, I guess. She was the happy energetic person who filled awkward silences and always strived to be normal, fit in and make friends, normal _human_ friends. She was the one we would have to do things without. Living a normal life seemed as though we were betraying her because it had always been _her_ wish, and now that's exactly what we're about to do.

_**Max, Fang just said he would be back later... He had 'things' to 'sort out'.**_Angel placed the thought in my head. A mental breath I hadn't realised I was holding onto was suddenly released. As long as he was coming back eventually, I could deal with anything.

'We're going to head up to bed now.' My voice was tires and strained from exhaustion and worry for Fang and the rest of the flock. Mom just nodded mutely, realising the mistake she had made by assuming things were better. I grasped Ig's hand as we led the kids up the stairs to the room Gaz and Ange shared. He squeezed it after a few seconds and it gave me strength that I knew I would need to say what was about to come next.

'Now guys,' I started as soon and we were all arranged on Gazzy's camouflage bed. 'I know what Mom said was hard on us all, but, and I really don't want to say this, she was kind of right.' The younger kids immediately stiffened and I back-tracked quickly. 'Look, I'm not saying we are ever going to forget Nudge but sooner or later... We are going to have to start living our lives again. It's what Nudge would have wanted, I'm sure of that.'

Silence...

'Bu-but, I don't want to get old and not be able to remember her clearly... She was my best friend.' Angel's voice was small and scared.

'I don't want to forget her either. Like the way she used to scream at us when we exploded toothpaste in her face or got her clothes dirty. Or that time when she brought me shopping because I 'needed new clothes', I hated it at the time but now... I just want to do it again and again and again so I can be with her for just a few seconds longer.' The Gasman's fears joined his sister's in the silence of the room.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but I just couldn't. Iggy saved me by saying gently, 'Look guys we are all going to miss Nudge and the pain wont just go away like that, but Max is right. Sooner or later we are going to have to at least try and continue on. We can live our lives _for_ Nudge. And I swear on my life, I will _not_ let you guys _ever_ forget her and I will kill or seriously injure _any idiot_ who will try and take her away from us on purpose.'

His face wore an expression I had never seen on him before; Ig looked way older than his years. The kids nodded slowly and cried again for a bit before finally drifting off to sleep. Iggy and I stayed with them until they were safely in dreamland. I fixed the covers on Gaz's bed before we silently crept out.

In the dark hall, I suddenly threw my arms around Iggy and his arms held me in a brotherly embrace as the tears I had kept at bay for so long, flowed out of me. 'I-I don't think I can do it Iggy. I don't want to leave her in the past like all the others at the School and just-' I broke off hiccupping.

'Look Max, it hurts for me too. I loved h- she was my sister as well and my heart is breaking every second of every day without her in our family. But we need to at least try because if we don't, then we'll lose each other as well. I need this "distraction" or whatever your mom's suggesting because if I keep replaying that night in my mind, I think I might go crazy or die or something. The pain is slowly eating me apart and I can feel myself tearing apart at the seams... Please just consider it, for me because I really, _really_ need to do something. Fast. '

A drop of water fell onto my cheek and I looked up to see, surprised. Iggy's eyes were pressed together tightly to try and stop tears from leaking out. I hugged him harder but he pulled away too soon and locked himself in his room. I heard smashing and things being thrown around but I decided to just leave Iggy at it because it was just his way of dealing with the pain.

I retreated into my own room and fell onto my bed. I promptly passed out from grief and tiredness and woke up eleven hours later with a seven and eight year old squished onto my tiny bed. I smiled and carefully hopped over them before making my way downstairs. I spotted Iggy with his head in his hands on the couch, a movie playing, and decided that, for a nice treat for everyone I would make breakfast.

I know what you're all thinking '_No Max! They don't want to be poisoned by your positively dangerous cooking!'_ but I wasn't listening to my common sense at that moment in time. How hard could it be, I was thinking to myself as I closed the kitchen and turned to face the room filled with food waiting to be 'Maxified'. I decided on bacon, toast, eggs and pancakes to be safe.

First, I found the bacon and somehow managed to tear the damn stuff out of the packet because someone hid the scissors from us children *_ahem_ Mom _ahem_*. Anyway I finally got it and soon the bacon was safely in the oven turned up as high as the dial thing would go, just to make sure they would get enough cooking.

Toast looked easy enough and apparently only really culinary-challenged people couldn't cook it so I grabbed the slice-pan and shoved like five pieces into the toaster at once because I needed them to be ready at the same time; easy-peasy. A couple of pieces fell on the floor but I didn't really pay any attention because I was focused on my next challenge.

Eggs. The majority of us loved omelettes so that became my mission. Make an omelette... however that works. I was_ almost_ positive you made them in a frying pan so I somehow managed to find one in the mess of kitchen things that no one bothered to tidy up in the cupboards. I cracked the eggs into the pan –dropping a couple on the way over from the fridge – and picked out a few of those annoying shell bits.

I tried to remember what Ig did next, but I was coming out blank so I just poured some milk into the pan as well. That looked like... well, it just looked repulsing. I shrugged and fiddled with the hob yolks until I was sure I had the right one turned on. I did the same as the bacon; turned those babies up as high as they could go.

Right; pancakes. Hmm... You use flour and, uh, milk I guess. Oh and there's defiantly some eggs in there. I poured all those things into the massive bowl Iggy used for pancakes and stirred it round a few times. Okay, ew. That stuff looked even worse than the omelettes, or whatever they turned out to be. Cooking was turning out to be hard but I decided to keep going and with 'precise' hands poured half the contents of the mixing bowl into the blender – to save time stirring it 'round – and half onto the kitchen floor. Damn.

_Build a bridge and get over it Max... C'mon _is what I forced my brain to hear. I was going to make a nice breakfast for the Flock whether the food liked it or not!

I stupidly pressed the big green button on the blender and regretted it instantly. The stupid thing didn't say on it that you needed a lid! The disgusting stuff shot out of the blender like a fountain of water and went _all_ over the kitchen and, you guessed it, me. At that exact moment, the oven started smoking like crazy, the frying pan caught fire, and the toaster burst into flames and the smoke alarm practically had a field day playing all its loud 'alarmy' sounds.

I went to sprint over the pan and the oven when I slipped on the eggshells, soggy bread and 'pancake' mix and fell into a massive puddle of yucky ingredients. When Mom, Ella and the flock ran in I had egg shells in my hair, bread pieces down my shirt and that disgusting concoction of stuff all over my entire body. They all skidded to a halt just before me and mouths hanging open, stared in disbelief at my catastrophe. I stared back, slightly embarrassed but too proud to show it. Mom quickly put out the fires and went back to staring at me in disbelief.

Iggy started it, damn him. It began as a snort and developed into a chuckle. Soon it was a full blown laugh. He was practically rolling around on the floor with the others laughing nervously beside him. I scowled and put on a pouty face._ Snap. Snap._ Gazzy had pulled out our ancient digital camera and was furiously snapping shots of me and the kitchen before I could leap up and stop him.

'Wha- hey! Gazzy _put the camera down now..._ Stop laughing Iggy, you're going to get it now!' I jumped up to slip and fall again around 2.1 seconds later. This set them all off and some, in Ig's case, had to lean against doorframes to support themselves. Finally Mom was mature enough to catch her breath again and help me up... only to lead me over to the backdoor.

'I'm sorry Max, but you can't come into the rest of the house like that. Gazzy, dear, would you mind hosing Max down for me? Get Iggy to help you while Ella, Angel and I clean up the kitchen after... What were you trying to do again honey?'

'Breakfast Mom, it's called making a meal because I care; but seriously, _Iggy_ and _Gazzy_ with a hose and actual _permission_ to use it? Please God, NO!' The torture and torment I would suffer at the hands of them with a hose and digital camera... Gazzy chuckled darkly, rubbing his hands together and stroking the camera.

'Hello internet...' Oh God; anything but this. I tried pleading to my mom with my eyes but she just made shooing gestures with her hands. I didn't move. Angel got on her tiptoes and whispered something in Ig's ear, his eyes lit up and he started towards me. I knew what he was going to do at that moment and started to scramble backwards.

He laughed loudly, pinpointing my location and proceeding to throw me over his shoulder with strength only a mutant bird-kid has. 'Iggy! Put me down _now_! I'll-I'll... Tell Fang when he gets back and he'll, uh, do something to you! Mom, anyone please make him put me _down!_' They all laughed as Ig carried me out to the yard. He threw me down gently on the remains of the trampoline Gazzy blew up last week.

'Max, do I have to tie you to something or will you let us hose you down... And maybe get some great internet footage?' I seethed silently, wishing Iggy wasn't blind so he could get the full force of my amazing glares. The Gasman, being able to see and get the whole effects of my glares, backed away. 'Crap Gaz, is she doing that staring thing again? Max... Do I have to bring out the duct tape...?'

'Iggy... Will you _please_ just give it up and let me _go_ damnit! Seriously, Fang is going to be mad when he gets home. C'mon!' I whined, stupidly not seeing Gaz creeping behind with the hose full of, wait for it, freezing cold water. 'Aiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie! That's so cold!' I screamed while the water was aimed directly at my body. That was some pretty_ damn_ cold water, let me tell you.

The rest, safe in the house, looked out the windows and laughed at the sight of Gaz with camera in one hand and hose in the other, while Ig forcibly held me down as I struggled furiously. I shrieked and squirmed around but Iggy was a good bit taller than me and was resting all his weight onto me. 'Smile for the camera Max!'

Thirty minutes later, I plodded into the house, shoes squelching, and wrapped in a fluffy towel. Iggy followed, also sopping wet but with a sprained wrist and a few broken fingers from where I finally managed to flip him off me, hard, and run away from the ice cold stream of water. Gazzy was close behind after being instructed to _burn_ the tape but everyone knew he had no intention of doing so.

The rest of the day passed in a blur waiting for Fang to return. At eleven at night, I finally sent the kids to bed and went to wait in my room with Iggy. I curled up in his arms, in a sisterly way _only_, and he rested his head on mine. 'Today was good Max, like the old times. The pain was- we felt like a family again for about an hour...'

'I know Ig... I felt it too. When Fang gets back we'll discuss it more.'' I turned to stare out the window, almost expecting Fang to just be there. I sighed and curled back up on the bed in disappointment when he wasn't there.

'He's gonna come back Max, I promise. Don't waste your thoughts worrying about him; you have others in your flock ya know.' Iggy hopped off my bed and walked to the door before adding, 'Call me when Fang gets in,' in a slightly bitter tone. I opened my mouth to call him back but left it, he was a big boy, he could handle it. I suddenly felt a pang of guilt, was Ig hurting more than we knew? He seemed so different at times now that Nudge was gone... Did he lov-

_Tap. Tap. Tap._ The tapping noise on my window distracted me and all thoughts of Iggy went out of my head. I rushed over to see a slightly bloodied Fang hovering outside. My heart leaped and I frantically pulled him in. 'Your _hands_!' I gasped. They were bloody and the skin was cut and torn like, everywhere. He half smirked and tried to hide them. By this time, everyone was in my room, fussing over Fang.

'Leave it Max.' He murmured at me, trying to get up and out of the centre of attention. I ignored him, trying to find the bandages in the first-aid kit while attempting to force him down with one hand. The others were hugging and joking with him having not seen the full extent of his hands that were half behind his back.

'Sit down, shut up, and let us fix your _damnit_ hands!' I screamed at last. He gazed at me and I glared back. Ange and Gaz noticed the blood and gasped, while Iggy had already located the bandages and was wrapping Fang's hand up. I smirked at Fang; one-nil to me.

He jumped up as soon as we were done and made his way out to my mom. The rest of us crept slowly behind him, anxious to see who would do what this time round. 'Look Dr M... I-I think you sprung this on us way too fast and that was, quite frankly, _really_ stupid.' He glanced over at the younger kids and closed his eyes for a second. 'But I think, at least for the younger kids, we should give this a shot.'

There was silence as Fang turned on his heel and stalked back into his room. The kids and Ig followed as Mom sighed and sat back down. 'I've really ruined things haven't I, Max...?' She sighed with her head in her hands.

I sat down too and rubbed circles on her back saying, 'Not completely Mom... they just need time to adjust and get used to the idea, and they'll come round eventually. And Fang, well, Fang just needs time and hopefully he'll come 'round as well.' I slowly stood up and made my way over to Fang's room where the rest of the flock were. 'G'night Mom...'

**Well... How was it? I tried to add a bit of humour in for some of you guys so tell me if it works or if I should just stick to writing depressing stuff!**

**This chapter was kinda important coz it's where they all realise they have to move on and start life again... Anyway PLEASE review and leave me comments, critism or any things you want to see happen!**

**So REVIEW! I swear it makes me write faster! I will be back hopefully next weekend with the next chapter... Only if I get a certain amount of reviews!**

**Peace out... :) **


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride *sob***

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Nudge POV- the day after her capture:

_Pain. Darkness. More pain. The Flock! _My head hurt like a million trucks had run me over. Ouch. My joints and bones were aching like... like... Well they were just _really freaking_ sore, okay? Anyway after I cursed a bit (okay a _lot_) in the privacy of my mind, I realised I was clamped down onto a table by my ankles and wrists. Crap.

_What happened to the rest of the flock?! Are they okay?! Are they here too?! Why am _I_ here?! Wait, what is here?! _My mind was overflowed with worried, terrified thoughts. I suddenly froze and took a wary breath through my nose.

My senses suddenly went out of control and I had a mini panic attack as I realised what I was breathing in. That smell; Antiseptic-y with just a hint of plain fear and generally nasty... The School! My breathing hitched and I started hyperventilating as my body tensed up and I almost screamed. The images and flashbacks I had tried so hard to forget for the past four, almost five years were coming back full force. I bit my lip until it bled and I shrieked bloody murder in my mind, trying to hold my fear inside me.

I had no idea how I got there... The last I remembered was falling down the stairs and... My memory just ended there. Wait; my arm! I remembered the sickening crack and the sudden flow of blood. I carefully tried moving it just an inch, to see if I could fight if necessary with it. I had to stifle a scream. _Damn_ that hurt. This was not going well.

After almost five minutes, I managed to calm myself down enough to see sense. Well as much as you can see with your eyes closed firmly shut; but anyway. I forced myself to take the deep breaths I had been taking before I came to my horrifying discovery. I cracked one eye (I think it was my right, actually) and peeked out.

_Owww... The light, it burns!_ Okay I totally had a vampire moment there but whatever. Anyway, the creepy bright white light they were shining on my face hurt my eyes like _freaking_ hell. I took a deep breath –Eww, the 'School' smell...- and tried again. It still hurt but I was ready for it this time. I darted my eye to the left and saw a table full with scary metal tools which were covered in this thick red stuff. _Oh no... Don't think about that, turn away now!_ I told myself and, dreading what I might see, turned to the right. I saw a load of freaky looking scientists with clipboards and large machines that were, gulp, attached to me.

I quickly shut my eye and, still freaking out majorly on the inside, and tried to make it look like I was still unconscious or whatever I had been before. 'Hey! Experiment N45g3 is showing signs of coming round and I swear I just saw it open its eyes!' Some white-coat reject yelled out. Oh crap... Experiment N45g3 was me.

They crowded around me and I could feel them poking and prodding like, _everywhere_ on my freaking body. It was _not _pleasant in _any _way at all. It was completely gross and I felt like screaming out, 'I'm a person not an "experiment", you evil people!' But I held it in, just. I was _this_ close to bursting out in tears but I tried to keep that in too.

Too bad it didn't work. A single tear rolled down my cheeks before I could hold it in. _Damn. Crap._ One of the white-coats caught it on his finger and laughed a huge mocking laugh at me. 'Aww... Poor N45g3, do you want your Maxie back?!' He whispered in a dangerous mocking, taunting tone. I focused on not making any signs of movement or anything that might tell them I was actually awake but they knew anyway. Everyone in the room knew I was faking. 'Wake up lil birdie... Rise and shine!'

I ignored him, wishing I could go back to being unconscious so I would feel any pain or be aware of anything. I could feel them all getting angrier and more of them were digging their fingers into my bare flesh. I realised I was only wearing a baggy grey top and a pair of tiny shorts that I had never worn before in my life with a start. The thought of grown men in creepy matching white coats dressing and undressing my unconscious form was _slightly_ disturbing but nothing compared to the thought of what they could have done with me. I shuddered slightly, remembering the bloody instruments.

'Open. Your. Eyes. You. Freak... before I have to force them open.' One of them hissed at me. I froze and, stupidly, didn't do anything. Big mistake there let me tell you. I heard a kind of buzzing noise, like a few hundred bumble bees where being severely pissed off and got kinda worried but still didn't move like the naive bird-kid I was. There was also a telltale sound of switches being flipped on and a charging-up kinda noise...

_Wha- !_ They shoved a gun-like thing into the left side of my stomach and pulled the 'trigger'... It felt like someone was lighting my stomach on fire and a thousand knives were being plunged into me. I, giving in to those sick people, screamed my heart out. My body was jolted off the table and it felt like I would have hit the roof it the restraints hadn't been keeping me firmly on the operating table. I screamed over and over and as my pitiful cries echoed around the room, I felt the gun-thing being removed and people shouting my name telling me to stop and that 'there will be consequences if I didn't shut up right now...'

I ignored them all, only focused on the pain in my abdomen. After what seemed like years, but was probably only like five minutes, the pain finally faded and I looked up to see my sick torturers staring back at me. I was even sorer than I was before and covered in sweat. My body was panting as I was hyperventilating again. The biggest, fattest one (with a disgusting moustache thing going on) slapped my across the face. I gaped open mouthed at him. _How dare he!_

He yelled at me and called me _loads_ of rude words, some in a completely different language, and I assumed he was talking (yelling more like) about my whole screaming incident, like it was _my_ fault some idiot practically killed me by plunging what probably was a few hundred volts of electricity into my body and caused me unimaginable pain. I was still seeing red and _very_ angry about the whole lets-slap-the-mutant-across-the-face-like-she's-an-animal thing so when he leaned closer to me, so close I could smell his _awful _body odour, I spat right in his face.

I swear I did. I spat in the jerk's face and screamed at the top of my lungs, 'My name is NUDGE, N-U-D-G-E, and I am a human being! Not an experiment you sick, mindless, JERKS! Go to freaking hell!' I was so not expecting what happened next. They laughed at me; _laughed_ at me! My eyes narrowed but before I could come up with a witty response or spit at them again, they fired up that gun-yolk and aimed this time for my legs.

I screamed bloody hell again, and from the intense pain slowly slid into unconsciousness, thankful I could escape the terrible pain that was threatening to overcome my senses. I remember having a kind of jerking, squirming fit which earned my some hard blows but I couldn't stop. Finally, it came too late, the blackness started to appear around my vision and my eyes rolled back. I was blessed with the gift of feeling no pain for a few seconds and my last thought was; _I really hope the Flock is okay and not enduring this as well._ And then I was gone.

I woke up feeling like crap, again, and stuffed into a dog crate. I spent the first seven years in a dog crate so the minute I realised what my accommodation was, I started bawling crying. For once I didn't care who saw me or what they'd do; I just needed to have a moment to myself. Or like twenty 'moments'... After like, I don't know, an hour I finally stopped and surveyed my surroundings. I was being held in a small room with an even smaller window, whose light was blocked by a tatty curtain, by myself. There were other empty crates and boxes but I was the 'lucky' one who had the room to myself. Oh joy...

I flinched as the reinforced steel door to my holding cell was slammed open and the weird whitecoat who slapped me and made me spit at him, strode in with five Erasers behind him. I pressed myself to the back of my cage in fear and my breaths came up in shuddery gasps. My cage door was unlocked and I closed my eyes as two strong arms yanked me out. I screamed but was cut off by a swift painful punch to my jaw. They let me fall to the ground and as I looked up at my captors, I remembered something Max had always said to us every night a couple of years ago.

_**If you ever get caught by the School, give 'em hell for us and I swear we will come and get you. Always. **_We'd all swore and shook hands on the fact that even if we were the only ones not captured, we would _always_ try and save the others. This was my motivation as I jacknifed to my feet and landed a beautiful round-house kick into the face of the whitecoat. He fell to the floor, clutching his face and I was restrained in about 0.5 seconds, on the floor with my broken wrist angled painfully on my back and my head firmly under the freaks' boots. I smiled for the first time since I'd regained consciousness, the knowledge that the Flock would always come for me repeating in my head, over and over.

'My Flock is coming for me, so y'all better be SCARED!' I screamed at the top of my lungs and grinned with hope as I was shoved back in the cage. The Erasers started to throw my cage to each other for fun, while they waited for instructions from the whitecoat who was moaning on the floor. I was thrown all around the room and battered from one edge of my cage to another. My wrist was probably nearly healed by then but I caught it between my body and the cage bars on a particularly bad spin and there was a loud crack, from the pain I guessed it was my stupid wrist and a few fingers again.

The whitecoat whose name I still didn't know, jumped up upon hearing my bones break and called those mutts off. They obeyed, giving my cage an extra kick before stalking out with their master, slamming the door behind them. I sighed a sigh of relief, glad they were gone for now but I had a foreboding feeling that I would _so_ pay for that later. Oh well, at least they were gone for the moment and the Flock were probably on their way to save me.

My wrist and middle fingers were _killing_ me so I pulled apart the bottom half of the t-shirt I was wearing and very awkwardly managed to bind my fingers together in a kind of splint and messily wrapped my wrist in a dirty bandage. It was solid proof why I wasn't the 'Flock doctor', that's what me and Angel nick-named Ig, but it would do until they busted me out.

After around an hour the whitecoat came back into my room with ten Erasers instead of the five I got last time. _Aww... They think I'm a handful, they ain't seen anything yet_, I thought to myself with satisfaction. This time they didn't risk taking me out of my cage. They just roughly threw me onto a loading cart and we headed merrily along the corridors of sunshine. Yeah right, take out the merrily and add in painfully, then replace sunshine with fear, pain and death. That sounds about right, please continue.

Anyway, they wheeled me along about a billion corridors, my face pressed up against the bars of my crate, until we reached a scary white room that looked similar to the one I had been tortured in before except this had way more machines, white-coats and creepy instruments. I shrunk back against the back of the cage, fear setting in my heart. _The Flock are probably on their way, they'll get here in time, they won't let them hurt you,_ my hands trembled as I chanted the sentences in my head, as if I could make them come true by saying them hundreds of times.

Unfortunately, I was grabbed (with sweaty hands, EW!) and strapped down to the operating table even though I fought desperately for freedom, before I could hit the fifty count. I strained silently against my restraints and my breathing quickened as they leaned over me with googly eyes. 'Now, Experiment N45g3, this is your punishment for being a naughty freak today... Are you going to be a good experiment for us tomorrow...?' One of them teased me in a mocking tone.

'My. Name. Is Nudge.' I managed to force out between clenched teeth. 'My Flock is coming for me, so I tell you again, _YOU HAD BETTER BE PRETTY DAMN SCARED._' My voice was calm and deadly, kinda like Gaz's 'power', and I was pretty dang proud of myself when I saw a weedy whitecoat flinch away from me in fear. He was soon replaced by a big, burly one that looked like Emmett from Twilight, but whatever... One down, around, uh, a lot more to go.

I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about my 'punishment', but it was a hundred times more painful than I had _ever_ experienced in my entire life. Yeah, remember we're still talking 'bout the _mutant-bird-kid-who-spent-half-of-her-life-in-a-cage-undergoing-scary experiments_' life. I'm ashamed to say that after three minutes, I was begging them to stop, screaming for someone to kill me already. After an hour I was half dead and could hardly breathe from the pain. Hell, I didn't _want_ to breathe, just to die so the torture would stop. Finally they stopped and I was dragged painfully and in a crate back to consciousness and reality.

I didn't know where I was going but I had a bad feeling that it would be somewhere where I needed all my strength to make it out alive. Too bad I didn't even have an _ounce_ of strength in my entire body. I slumped against my cage and closed my eyes, wishing the Flock would come and save me soon. We soon reached our destination of torture and I looked weakly out. What I saw made a=me want to cry, puke and run away screaming in terror.

It was a large arena, designed to teach the Erasers how to hunt. They released experiments into it and they were mercifully hunted down and killed. And now I was being shoved into it, resisting all the way. I could barely stand and my head was spinning wildly. I spun around to see if they would kill me soon and nearly fainted when I saw what was coming towards me... Fifteen bloodthirsty Erasers, who would like nothing more than to rip me apart. I could barely fight three Erasers with back-up, but _fifteen_... You gotta be kidding me.

The horn went off and they raced towards me, raising dust as their sharp claws dug into the ground. I slipped into a defence crouch struggling to keep my eyes open. I cast one more desperate look at the sky, longing with all my heart to see the Flock swooping down to save me, but there was nothing. I was on my own.

_Prepare to die Nudge,_ I told myself.

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**What does everyone think...? I was kinds nervous to write this because I was worried I would screw it up. Did I completely mess this up? **

**PLEASE REVIEW and tell me what you think coz it makes me write faster and helps me to improve... Also I have NO idea where I am going with this story so if you have anything you want to see happen, review or PM me!**

**Merry Christmas everyone !!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey Guys... I'm so sorry for the long wait, I'll explain at the end but without further ado...  
Here's chapter 10 **

Nudge POV:

I saw them racing towards me and the whitecoats in the glass indestructible booths with their clipboards and pens poised to take notes down. _Sick freaks_... I knew I had to do this and survive for the Flock, even though I knew deep down I could never ever win this fight on my own and in my weakened state.

But I had to try, didn't I? The answer was, of course "yes" for two reasons. One, I was Nudge and was not going down without a damn good fight. Two, I grew up with _Max_... like hello Max is the queen of kick ass.

For these reasons I crouched down and prepared to face the thunder. Time to open a fresh can of 'whoop-ass'. Oh yeah...

My spirit was boosted by the rush of adrenaline, my eyes narrowed and my hands clenched into lethal fists. I had just enough time to draw a deep breath before the first of the tight formation descended on me. I was suddenly surrounded by salivating beasts and my body seemed as though it was working by itself. My fists swung out and broke jaws, my legs snapped to perform some beautiful roundhouses, my nimble body dodging _most_ of their heavy blows. Emphasis on _most_, the freaks had good aim.

But I could never keep going good for that long and both I and everyone else knew that.

Everywhere I looked I could see a bloodthirsty crazed Eraser that wanted to kill me. _Great.._. The worst thing was that when I looked up for a split second, I couldn't see the sky. Some Eraser-freak was blocking me from the beautiful sky where I needed to be. At that exact moment, one of them slashed the side of my face and I felt a searing pain. All the sounds of the arena suddenly stopped as if they were on a tape and the plug had been torn out of the socket.

I panicked and screamed at the top of my lungs as I lifted my hand up and came away with a sticky red stuff. The only thing was: I couldn't hear my screams.

It was like these dreams I used to have when I was little. I would scream and scream but I would never be able to hear myself and no one else could hear me. I would scream and scream in the dream until it started to close in on me and soon I would be smothered by the weight of my own cries which would not be heard. I would wake up screaming and crying, normally with Max or someone beside me trying to wake me. It was one of the reasons I talked so much, just to make sure they could hear me and the darkness wouldn't smother me.

That's why I freaked out so much. For a few seconds I was back in my nightmares and I froze and started to hyperventilate. That was when the Erasers started to win. I was yanked out of my mini-nightmare and into the real world when my arm was snapped and some of my hair torn out of my head. _Ouch! Focus you idiot... Deal with the whole 'not-being-able-to-hear-one-single-solitary-thing' thing _after_ the fight, which is probably to your death. _I remember thinking that there was no possible way I could ever be deaf. I was just injured and after a while my hearing would come back and then the Flock would come and save me.

My blows became less powerful, my legs couldn't take any more kicks and eventually, I started to sink to the ground. I could feel my bones being broken in _terribly_ painful ways and their kicks to my ribs were bang on but I couldn't move. _Get up Nudge, c'mon UP! _ My mind screamed at me and I tried, God I tried. But it was no use; I couldn't even hear the beasts' grunts or the whitecoats' angry roars at me. Hell, I couldn't even hear my gasping shrieks of _pure _agony or my piteous cries.

I could feel my wings being forced out of my shirt, and no matter how hard I tried to pull them in, the beasts got hold of them. They batted my beautiful wings around as if they were toys attached to my back. I screamed as they were practically ripped from my back and already I could feel the sticky wetness dripping down my back. I tried to fight back and burst up into the sky and fly away like a powerful bird but, because it's Nudge's life we're talking about, it didn't happen. Instead, I got to have my wings unmercifully torn and twisted until I stopped screaming.

I stopped everything and just lay there, giving up completely. My arms stopped weakly flailing and my legs did their last kicks. There was no point in trying; I would just be postponing a horrible death so I might as well just get it over with already. I was going to die in here with the Flock nowhere to be seen.

All at once the arena started flashing red and, even though I couldn't hear them, I knew there would be loud sirens going off. I groaned inwardly, they were going into code 5. Code 5 is when an experiment is too valuable to lose so they stop the 'fight' just before it dies and continue it another time when the experiment is healthy. Lucky me... they didn't want to kill me right away, I'm so honoured.

As I felt the Erasers being pulled off me and my broken body being tossed into my crate, I swung my weak fist out on a whim. As if in a silent movie, I still couldn't hear, I watched one of the scientists that was standing too damn close for freaking comfort fall to the ground. 'Take that suckers...' I wheezed like an eighty year old before the darkness engulfed my world and my head fell back to crack against the steel bars of the cage.

_Damn that's gonna hurt later. _And then I was gone.

Third Person POV:

Dr. Batchelor strode through the reinforced steel doors, straight into reception, his legs working as if by themselves. Jeb couldn't believe they'd done it. He'd specifically _ordered_ them to wait until he could get away from the family to test her. Someone was going to pay for putting Experiment N45g3 through all that pain and stress and not letting Jeb be there to see it.

He knew they were holding it in observation room 9 so Jeb practically sprinted up the three flights of stairs and skidded around the too clean corridors until he _finally_ reached the controls room. Inside, was a young scientist with his feet up on the desk and something that resembled a _playboy_ magazine in his (probably sweaty) hands.

Jeb, fuming, gave a cold cough and a smirk grew on his face as the boy yelled in surprise and fell of the chair he had been lounging on. 'Aaah! D-d-dr. Batchelder, I-I-I didn't see you there. The, uh, experiment is currently unconscious and injured so we have placed her-I mean it- in the observation room as you can see..?' He stuttered and flicked a switch, as Jeb nodded coldly to him, so one of the many computer screens lit up and Jeb saw Nudge for the first time since _that_ night.

Jeb's reaction was totally unexpected to the young man who couldn't have been older than 25. '_WHAT?!_ Why hasn't the freak been tended to? For all you know it's DEAD! Do you even know how much that is worth! China and Japan would pay billions to have it! That experiment is worth more than your life, boy... More than your whole family and a thousand of your closest friends, do you hear?!' He swung out at the boy and threw him onto the floor again and then stormed into the observation cell.

Nudge was lying crumpled on the floor where she had been thrown hours ago. Her body was twisted at every possible angle and her clothes were soaked in blood. Her wings were spread out under her and Jeb could see they were in a _very_ bad way. He crouched down close to her and felt her broken wrist for a pulse. It was there but faint, very faint. He gently brushed some frizzy hair away from her face and froze when he saw the entire side of her face covered in blood, dried and wet.

Jeb whipped out his walkie-talkie type thing and radioed for assistance. 'Pat. You complete fool. Get down here right bloody now.' His voice was cold as ice and icicles seemed to grow on his heavy words.

In lab 4, on the other side of the humongous building, a man named Pat O' Connell dropped his walkie-talkie and everything else he was holding and started running towards observation room 9 fast; because if the boss called you like that you ran for your life. Literally.

Iggy POV:

_Prepare to die Nudge... _I woke up gasping and covered in sweat for the second time this week. And it was only Wednesday. Damn my over-active imagination.

It was always the same dream though. I could see Nudge swaying weakly in an arena with a makeshift bandage around her wrist, the one she had broken on _that_ night. There was loads of what looked like rabid Erasers racing towards her and the last words I hear before they reach her and it goes blank, is her scared voice whispering to herself, _time to die Nudge._ Sometimes on a bad night, I can hear her screaming in pain_._ Then I wake up scared out of my mind for her, even though it's been around three months since she died.

This night it had been slightly different though. For the first time I had gotten a brief glance at her after the fight. I could have gone my _whole entire_ life without _ever _seeing that. Nudge was crumpled in a horrible heap on the floor with blood matting her hair and her arms and legs in a terrible state. And I mean terrible, they appeared to be broken in several places and long jagged cuts covering her body. I dreaded seeing the damage on her beautiful face.

Her wings were folded halfway under her slender body, crumpled and broken in loads of places, and they were stained a dark red colour; her blood. I flinched involuntarily away from the sight of her body and stumbled backwards. Because this was 'Iggy's Messed up Dream', I ended up falling through a seemingly endless hole screaming.

Then I woke up.

I stumbled blindly –no pun intended- down to the kitchen and chugged a big glass of water down in record time. I couldn't get the image of her out of my head and it was driving me crazy. Breathing heavily, I felt my way over to the table and plonked myself into a random chair. School, the real kind, started tomorrow and I couldn't get my head in order. Nudge was dead I reminded myself for the hundredth time and sighed heavily as my heart let out a beat of pain.

I had been reliving that night every day in my mind for the last few weeks. Had I imagined the almost undetectable pulse just as I was pulled away? Did I _really_ feel the slight rise of her chest filling with air for a split second? Or am I just making things up to give myself false hope and to avoid moving on?

My mind was plagued with these questions and more but I just wanted out. The screaming of my love echoed in my ears, when I closed my eyes all I could see was her broken and defeated figure. I couldn't tell the rest of the Flock about any of these things as it would either fill them with hope that could be easily shattered or make them look at me like I was crazy.

Ugh... My life was so confusing!

As I made my way back up to bed, to try and salvage the two hours of shut-eye I had left before school, I stopped where Ella's room was. Or at least where I thought it was, this house confused me. Anyway, I paused outside; just to be sure she was okay and breathing. _Iggy, what are you doing?! You love Nudge! _A voice in my head hissed at me, but I didn't care. 'Coz, maybe I had finally started to heal.

But did I want to move on...?

**How did I do...? I tried to include some important things in this chapter so I hope you guys picked up on them.  
I'm so sorry for only updating now when I said I would update a while ago but I have been busy with exams and holiday stuff... **

**Thanks to the following for reviewing the last chapter:  
**Nequam-Tenshi  
MaxRide05  
MEGGEM  
BookFan a.k.a GwenFan 22  
dont have account yet... heh  
Constant-Rae-Of-Sunshine

**You guys are the best!**

**So please everyone else that maybe read my story but didn't take the time to review, REVIEW! I need your opinions and suggestions to make it better!  
I'll update fast if people review but I'm going to need a certain amount of reviews to motivate me!  
So, I'll leave you guys with that final plea...**

**Happy Holidays everyone!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Here's chapter 11 everyone!**

* * *

Third Person POV:

Jeb watched in displeasure as the emergency team swarmed around experiment N45g3 in a flurry of action. He followed as they rushed out the door towards the nearest lab, his eyebrows knitted together in anger. The doors to lab 13 swung open and closed but Jeb stayed outside, looking through the port-hole window at the young girl.

'O'Connell, can you please enlighten me to why the experiment was left lying like that for hours. Who did you put in charge of the thing? It could be dead for Christ's sake! I need answers Pat, and if you're smart you'll give them to me immediately.' Batchelder's voice was cold and dangerous as he addressed the man standing behind him.

'I, well, you see... The experiment was... the team and I were...' The middle-aged Irish man stuttered and stammered. He shrunk into the wall as Dr. Batchelder spun on his heel and coolly raised an eyebrow at him. 'Dr. Batchelder', he restarted in a more confident voice, 'I left the freak with the lab boy in observation room 9 and I was assured it would be taken care of.'

Both Jeb and Pat knew he was lying his butt off. But lucky for Pat, Jeb had bigger fish to fry and with a slight nod, he glided into the crowed lab. The experiment was flat on the surgical table with people flying around, every person with some sort of medical instrument in their hands. A doctor that had been kidnapped from the outside to treat the injured freaks ran up to Jeb in a panic. 'The.... The experiment is breathing by itself and it's internal organs seem to be okay. The only thing is it's terrible exterior wounds that require immediate attention, especially one on the side of her- sorry, it's- face... What would you like us to do concerning them?' He was breathing heavily, having run all the way from Block C after being paged.

'_What?! _How bad is the head wound? This experiment is worth millions of dollars people!' Jeb stormed over to Nudge's unconscious form, which was almost covered in her blood. They had cleaned most of the blood from the side of her face and Jeb could clearly see the long jagged cut that went from almost her chin to her hairline, just touching her ear. The wound looked liked a jagged crescent moon on the side of her delicate face. It looked very bad to Jeb and he panicked, he needed Nudge to be alive for his plan.

The teams stood back, terrified of their boss. Dr. Batchelder was a dangerous person and no one wanted to be on his bad side. Jeb ran his finger softly up and down the ragged wound, his face guarded and expressionless. When he turned to face the others his eyes were hooded and his finger bloody. 'Tell me... that this will not damage experiment N45g3 permanently...' He forced out from clenched teeth with forced calmness. They all flinched and a skinny weedy man was pushed forward by the others.

'Well, Dr. Batchelder... We won't know for certain if the experiment's hearing will be damaged for good or just temporarily until it wakes...' He trailed off and seemed to shrink under Jeb's hard gaze.

'See to it that loss of hearing is prevented as much as you can. The other injuries... Only treat the ones that will kill. I will expect it back in lab 17 within the next half hour. That's all.' And with that Jeb turned and stalked out from the lab. The scientists remaining were frozen for a few seconds and then everything was moving faster than ever before. If the freak wasn't in lab 17 in time, there wouls be trouble; big trouble.

'C'mon people, we gotta secure this experiment before it wakes and hurts itself before we have a chance!'

Nudge POV:

I groaned as I felt myself being poked repeatedly. For a second I forgot where I was and just as I was about to yell as Gazzy to go away and stop annoying me when I remembered. I was a prisoner at the place where all my nightmares originated. This was not turning out to be a good month for me.

I opened my eyes carefully and almost cried when I saw the harsh white surgical light fixture hanging above me. Could this day get any worse? My whole body was aching but the place that won first prize for causing me agony was the side of my face. It felt as if it was burning and I went to lift a hand up to feel at the strange bandage thing someone had put on it, I realised I was chained to the table.

Like not strapped down like last time, but proper manacles and chains that allowed me to move my wrists about a foot in the air._ What the hell?! This isn't like the middle ages people!_ My mind screamed but instead of those words, a whimper came out of my mouth. Dang my weak body, it couldn't seem to resist pain and emotions. I _had_ to be more like Max in future.

I suddenly realised there was tons of people around my body that were looking down curiously at me. I started; I hadn't heard them all come around me. I was confused for a second and then it clicked... I hadn't _heard_ anything. This couldn't be good. Their mouths moved and they seemed to be talking to themselves as they wheeled me along a labyrinth of corridors and hallways. I was too busy being frozen in shock to memorize escape routes though.

Could I _really _be deaf? A part of me screamed 'Not' that there was no possible way in hell, but the logical side of me calmly told me that it all made sense. That I should start adding the puzzle pieces together better...

When we finally arrived I was transferred to another table where I was strapped down with Velcro restraints. I didn't fight then though and I could see the wary looks on their faces as they kept waiting for me rebel. They didn't have to wait long. I snapped out of it when one came towards me with a creepily long syringe, filled with a turquoise liquid that looked deadly. Hell, it probably was deadly.

I screamed, even though I couldn't hear myself, and strained against the Velcro with all my freaking strength. No luck, time for 'Plan B'. I could touch my thumbs against the thin, bloody shorts I was wearing, I decided the only other option was to hurt myself and hope they would stop to get me to stop. My nails were pretty long and some were filed into sharp, lethal points from a few days ago. The others had broken and one had been half ripped off during the battle. Ugh, speaking (wait... thinking) of the battle reminded me of all my pains and aches. Damn, there was a lot of pains, like, _every-freaking-where_; lucky me.

I flexed my fingers, hoping to get their attention, and painfully brought my nails up and down my legs leaving bloody stripes. The objection was to get them to panic and therefore, oh I don't know, _not_ inject me with the liquid of death. It worked... one-nil to Nudge! Unfortunately, it only succeeded in getting the whole of my hands duct-taped to the table and then secured with more tape. I was left with bleeding, painful thighs and an advancing syringe. I needed to get better at this 'make-a-good-plan thing.

I was just squeezing my eyes shut and preparing my mind for excruciating pain, when the syringe that was just tipping the mocha-coloured skin on my arm was removed. I open one eye warily. They seemed to be listening to someone speaking that had just entered from the door at the back of the lab. He was wearing a whitecoat –_Oh, joy... _– and a weird hat was covering half of his face. I knew immediately who he was before he looked at me, from his walk and the way he held himself. I didn't need to be able to hear his voice to know that he was, somehow, the person in charge.

His once kind eyes looked down at me as if I was a science experiment and just that simple gesture made my eyes fill up with pathetic tears. I could see his mouth moving and the other evil scientists nodding in pathetic adoration. He produced a remote thing with buttons and switches that just made me want to touch it and press all the buttons that were brightly coloured. Damn, I had to work on my concentration skills big time.

It looked like his big speech was coming to an end and just as I was readying myself for the syringe again; he pressed the red button on the remote. I tried to lean forward to see what it would do but just as I was, my world exploded in pain. I shrieked as the pain consumed me and my vision leaked red. I twisted and writhed in pain, only to discover the Velcro still was stronger than me. After a life time the pain finally stopped and I looked nervously around to find them all laughing silently at me, even _him._ Jeesh, it was like sitting through one of those silent movies... I _hate_ silent movies.

'You're all freaks and horrible and mean and crazy and there is no way in freaking hell any of you sick creeps is ever going to heaven because you're all so twisted and creepy and I would be worried about that if I was you cause God is going to send you all to HELL! That's a pretty bad place you know and I've heard it's filled with bad people like you all and flames and pools of fire and demons! The demons part used to scare me when I was younger so you had better all be really scared... And when your all old and wrinkly like raisins you'll never be able to get a husband or wife cause everyone will see that you EVIL and hate you for eternity and then the demons will eat you and-' I was going slightly hysterical and my heart was probably beating harder than ever but I needed a good rant so I continued, ignoring all the astonished stares I was getting. Someone obviously never told them I can talk for ages... Sucks to be them right now! 'And then you will fall into those pools of fire and burn up until you're an even uglier raisin-person!'

Since I couldn't hear my voice to judge how loud I was, I just screamed it at the top of my lungs. I saw some covering their ears, well I have been told my voice gets unrealistically high-pitched. Oops.

I sped up seeing him getting a sedative ready, 'and, and, um your all horrible people and if I ever get free I will come back and KILL you all and if you kill me first I will come back and HAUNT you forever!' The needle was being forced into my arm and I gazed up at the person I hated most and spat at him saying, 'I hate you Jeb Batchelder... Go to hell.'

Then everything went freaking black again. I was doing _way_ too much of this lately.

Max POV:

Today was the dreaded day. The Flock was going to school. Real school... Oh joy.

Of course we all had cover names and fake backgrounds, it would be just asking for trouble if we went into a class and said, 'Hell, my name is Maximum Ride and I am an avian-hybrid and here is my flock.' We weren't _that_ stupid, hopefully.

I was keeping the name Max, Fang was Nathan and Iggy wanted his real name which was James. Gaz was pushing for Captain Terror again but luckily I managed persuaded him to take Matthew and Angel picked Amelia. For last names, Iggy and I went under Martinez, Fang was Ride and Angel and the Gasman were the adorable Johnston siblings. I just hoped no one slipped up and forgot our cover names, mainly me.

Iggy shoved on a pair of plain black sunglasses as he piled into the car –Is it a bad sign if you're late the first day? – Because he was pretending to have 'light-sensitive-eyes' instead of telling people he was blind. He wanted to participate in Gym and apparently blind people weren't allowed.... What a stupid rule! As soon as the dumb secretary was done taking down our details a million times and explaining the school map to us two million times, like hello we're not that stupid, we ran to our third class.

Gazzy (Matthew) and Angel (Amelia) were attending the junior school so I gave them big hugs and firmly informed Gaz that 'There would be _big _trouble if anything was exploded on the first day...' and then watched them skipping down the hallway to their classrooms, an hour and a half late. We rushed to the science room and burst through the door, panting and out of breath. The class looked up, startled, and the teacher gave us dirty looks while he directed us to the free seats scattered around the room.

Fang was put up at the front, I was beside the window overlooking the traffic- filled road and Iggy was right at the back... In the most inaccessible place possible for a blind guy. I pulled him close for a second and swiftly hissed the directions to his seat to him while the teacher tapped his foot impatiently. Damn him. I fumed when a jerk stuck his foot out as Ig walked carefully past and tripped him. The jerk's friends started laughing and one of them gave me a suggestive wink, no thanks!

When Iggy finally got to his place, the teacher resumed teaching and I, being Maximum Ride, completely ignored the fool. This seemed to annoy him somehow so for the rest of the class he asked the 'new kids' (a.k.a. us) questions to 'quiz' us. Huh, more like completely embarrass us and give out heck to us for not knowing squat. When the class was _finally_ over, we slipped away before he could give us that detention he had been threatening us with the whole class. I wasn't sure how many more idiot teachers I could take without punching someone.

Then it was lunch, we wandered though the crowded mess of tables looking for an empty one. We were just heading for one when I felt something on my butt. It was that jerk that tripped Iggy; he spun me around and started to whisper disgusting things in my ear. I had had it up to _here_ with jerks and, well, _life_ at that moment so I promptly punched him in the face and tripped him. I bent down and breathed, 'I am Max Ride, don't even think about it buddy...' I went to kick him but Fang was dragging me away at this point.

I whined at him to let me go back and finish that creep, but he just laughed and we sat down at our table with everyone in the freaking lunch room staring at us. I felt better already. Of course we were caught; the jerk had run to the office crying like a baby with a broken nose and pride, so we trudged to the office laughing all the way. I didn't give a damn what the principal had to say but apparently being called to his office in your first few hours was a big deal. People were whispering and pointing at us the whole way, but a death glare from me shut most of them up.

We were messing with the stuff on the principal's death when he stormed in. Meh, time to face the music...

**Well, there is chapter 11... hope you liked it!**

**Thanks to the people who reviewed the last chapter:  
**Nighthawk21  
Zoe625  
Dibs on Fang He's so Hot  
BookFan22 a.k.a GwenFan22  
lunareclipse3  
Aroura  
MEGGEM  
Constant-Rae-OF-Sunshine  
nequam-tenshi  
MaxRide05

_**You guys rock :)**_

**I will try and update next weekend, please REVIEW and tell me what you thought, give me advice, tell me what you want to happen... anything, I'm not picky!**

**Happy 2010 everyone!**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hey guys... Here's chapter 12! And sorry for any mistakes in this chapter or the ones to come!**

**Disclaimer: I (still) do not own Maximum Ride! This can do until I remember again :)**

Nudge POV

I woke up, stuffed in a crate, with dried tears making tracks on my face. The room I was in was piled with hundreds of similar crates, some that held experiments just like me; it looked like a mass holding room. Oh God... some of the kids in here were so young.

I jumped (well, as much as a person can jump in a _tiny_ crate designed for dogs...) as the lump in the row opposite me stirred and then sat up. I saw the experiment was a boy, using my helpful raptor eyesight. He rubbed his eyes and squinted at me- he seemed to recognise me- and out of nowhere, he started to throw himself against the bars, rocking the cage. I watched in horrified silence as he managed to tip himself onto the dirty floor, landing with a horrible crunch. The stranger didn't hesitate and begun to roll his crate across the row, towards me.

Panting, he finally reached my side just as the Erasers burst in snarling. I froze as they picked up his cage and put it right next to mine, stopping to snap their teeth at me and punch me through the bars in a crazed way. They finally left, leaving me with a few bruises, and suddenly it was quiet again. The boy, who was keeping well pressed back into the shadows of his crate now, cleared his throat loudly.

Then it hit me... I could hear again! My hand shot up to inspect the bandage they had placed around my face, my fingers skimming the gauze and feeling the dried blood that had soaked through. _How long was I unconscious for?_ This was bad; I had been here for... I didn't know the exact number of days, seeing as I was probably out cold for most of them, but it was possibly almost a week and the Flock still hadn't come. They must be hurt or something important must have kept them from rushing to save me.

I was yanked out of my confusing thoughts by the boy coughing again. I finally realised he was trying to get my attention and turned to face him, my eyes curious as to why this slightly familiar person had gone to so much trouble to get to me. I stared at him, trying to put my finger on which he was; his name and where I'd met him were on the tip of my tongue.

'Who _are_ you...? I recognise you but...' My voice was cracked and strained from me not using it for ages, my eyes searching his face for some kind of clue. I leaned forward, desperate to know his identity now.

'I-My name...' He stuttered, leaning slightly into the light that came from the dirty light fixture that hung above our heads. He had perfect blue eyes that were the exact colour as the sky and I could feel myself melting. 'I'm, uh, Collin Timmons...'

I gasped... It all clicked into place then. Collin had been in my class when we had been with Anne in Virginia. I grasped the bars of my cage, trying to get closer to him. 'But, how... When did they get you?' I was so confused and my heart was sinking, they must have snatched him from his family and brought him here.

'Do you remember Mr. Pruitt? The principal... From school.' I nodded, frozen with anger towards the man Collin had just mentioned. 'Well, um, he's my uncle and he captured me and brought me here... He tricked me into thinking he was taking me to the festival that had just come to town and, well, the rest is history. I've been here for around a year. I miss my sister, my parents, my dog... everything. That bastard Pruitt took my life away, I'm going to die in here, Tiffany!' His face was a terrible mask of sadness and loneliness, I wanted to give him a hug, but the stupid bars were in my way.

'Collin... I- We'll get out, I promise. My Flock is coming to get me and when they come we'll escape and-and-' I burst out crying for him and for me, both of us with our lives snatched from us in the blink of eye. He reached out his skinny hand to me and I took it, still sobbing. In the dim light we could see our intertwined hands, black and white, so different but yet the same. He was crying too now, holding onto my hand as if it was a life preserver and he was sinking in the ocean. 'I p-promise, Collin... If my Flock don't come for me, we'll bust out together and I'll get you back to your family. I swear.'

We stayed like that for what seemed like hours but actually wasn't long at all, soon I stopped crying and we stayed just looking at each other. Then I remembered something, 'Oh, uh, Collin... My name isn't actually Tiffany, it's Nudge. Tiffany was just my cover name in case anyone recognised us...'

He smiled at me and whispered softly, 'Nudge... That's an even more beautiful name than Tiffany...' My jaw dropped and I touched a hand to my mouth. No one had _ever_ told me my name was beautiful. My eyes welled up with tears again, except this time it was tears of an emotion I just couldn't put my finger on. I didn't love him, but I _really_ liked him, like a best friend.

I opened my mouth to say something back to him, but _of course _the whitecoats had to march in at that moment_. Great..._ They pulled me roughly from my cage, laughing as I whimpered in pain at my broken and bruised body. Collin yelled at them, begged them to take him instead but they just laughed harder. I was dumped in a travelling cage, one that had wheels, and swiftly transported to a dull room with a table and two chairs. They flung me into the room and I landed near the table, sprawled out awkwardly on the dirty floor. The door was slammed shut behind me and I could hear the electronic locks clicking and making strange noises to show that it had locked.

I pulled myself up after a few minutes of heavy breathing, using the table as support, and limped over to the chair. If I was going to be here for long, I might as well sit down and rest until whatever they were about to throw at me came. My right ankle was killing me so I propped it up on the table and got my first proper look at it, the light in the holding room was too dim to see anything. I winced and had to glance away for a few seconds when I first saw it, it was sticking out a weird way and there was millions of scratches and cuts running up and down my smooth brown leg. I concluded it was either dislocated, broken or a dislocated break. _Fantastic..._

I had no _freaking_ idea about how to go about fixing my ankle and I bit my lip nervously, afraid I would damage it more trying to help. But it would be disastrous if it healed wrong, so I took hold of it (trying to ignore the pain that threatened to consume me) and pulled... _**Snap!**_ It was wretched into place and I stifled a shriek, telling my body to ignore the pain. When I felt I could move again without screaming, I tore off another strip of my shirt and wrapped my ankle tightly, struggling to stay quiet.

Just as I went to collapse back against the chair, I heard someone clapping softly, laughing a bit. I gasped involuntarily and spun around, nearly falling off the chair. A man walked out of the shadows, his expensive shoes 'clack, clack, clacking' on the wooden floor. I mentally hit myself, wondering how the hell I hadn't noticed him earlier. He was still chuckling as he pulled the other chair out and sat down, facing me head on.

'Feet off the table, experiment.' He ordered and I felt my anger well up within me. My feet remained on the table; my eyes dared him to make me move them. He leaned forward and repeated it quietly, his eyes locked in a silent battle with my big brown ones. _Make me... Go on, Jeb_, my eyes seemed to scream, with a half smirk on my bruised and battered face. He seemed to snap and in one swift movement, swept my legs off the table, sending them crashing to the ground with my body following. I inhaled sharply with the pain and, within in a heartbeat, I had flung myself on him, aiming for his throat.

Within twenty seconds, the room was flooded with guards that were restraining me, and adding a black eye and split lip to my ever growing injury inventory. They forced me into a chair with wrist and ankle shackles, my eyes remaining locked on Jeb's traitorous ones the whole time. When I was (painfully) under control, Jeb nodded at the others to leave the room, smiling with creepy pleasure when they reluctantly did his will. Slowly, he turned around to me, his eyes gleaming with sick joy, like a child who has just received a brand new toy.

'Now, _Nudgie... _we need to have a little talk about your behaviour, these last few days.' His face transformed into the kind mask that he had worn during my childhood and up to a few days ago. I couldn't believe it.

'Are you drunk?' I asked blatantly watching as he looked confused and shook his head of near greying hair. 'High? Poisoned? Because if it's none of those, then you have no possible excuse for doing any of these monstrous things to me. Wait till the Flock comes and wait till I tell them what you've done, you sick freak. They'll _kill_ you...' My eyes narrowed in disgust and I spat at him. 

'Now, N45g3... Be careful what you say to me, I could have you beaten for that. Oh, and as for the Flock, they aren't coming for you... Ever.'

'You're a terrible liar, Jeb. Of course they're coming for me... They're my Flock. We_ promised_ each other we'd never leave someone behind. Not that you'd know anything about loyalty or promises.' My mind was racing, my heart thumping against my ribcage. Could he be telling the truth? I was suddenly filled with dread and despair. _Snap out of it... It's the __**Flock**__, of course they're coming._

'Oh, N45g3... I'm sooo hurt,' He faked a hurt expression and, mocking me, placed a hand on his heart and pretended to cry. 'Watch this tape and tell me what you think about them then.' He rolled a TV out of the shadows (Jeesh, how many things are going to appear out of shadows today?!) and slid a disk into the slot. I leaned forward, trying to get closer.

It showed a series of images at the start and some made me want to cry. _The flock hugging without me the Flock moving into a new house without me, the Flock having a movie night without me, the Flock trying on school uniforms without me, the Flock piling into a car with schoolbags on their backs without me, the Flock eating lunch in a school cafeteria without me...._ It just went on and on. I could feel anger, rejection and pain building up inside my heart, threatening to burst out of me. The last thing was a video of the Max hugging Angel and the Gasman in an empty hallway, whispering things in their ears and then running to class with Iggy and Fang, a happy smile on her face. Warm, salty tears started to descend down my face, my calm exterior disintegrating.

'No... NO!' I was shaking, a cold feeling descending over me. _They're leaving me here... They've forgotten about me. My Flock... Abandoning me forever... They don't love me any more..._ 'How long have I been here for?' My voice was shaky and weak, my body overcome by tremors.

'Just over three months, we had to sedate you for long periods of time... That's enough time for them to come, they've abandoned you. Guess you didn't mean that much to anyone after all...' His harsh mocking tone and glinting eyes did it. I snapped. My back arching, I let all the pain and hurt erupt form my fingertips, loving the burning thrill I could suddenly feel consuming me. I cried out with anger and rejection, loving how my cry made Jeb flinch in terror, how it echoed around the room, proof of my rage and anguish.

I was faintly surprised to see a kind of purple energy flowing from my fingers, wrapping itself around the TV that was still showing those heartbreaking images, over and over. I screamed with the agony of my heart breaking, shrieking with the satisfaction of watching the screen that held the evidence of my abandonment burn under my command. Jeb, a scared expression on his face was frantically calling for help, screaming as my purple energy/fire crept up around him. The TV was nothing more than a flaming lump surrounded by a purple glow when the first of them ran in. It had finally stopping playing but I knew the images were burned onto my heart forever.

I was seeing the world through a purple haze, watching with no emotion as the room flooded with people, injecting me with sedatives. I floated into submission, somehow stopping the energy with my mind, and slipped away into a darkness tinged with purple. _I have a new power... Is that good or bad...?_

I woke up in a white room, with one of those totally fake mirrors they use in police stations on one of the walls. Like, hello! Everyone knows the people are watching you from behind. My eyes darted around nervously as I pulled my knees up to my chest and rocked myself; I knew they would be watching my every movement now for God knows how long. What had I done? The only thing I remembered about the explosion of purple energy was that it made me feel in control and powerful, like I was the one in charge of my life for once. My eyes burned with the realisation that my Flock, _my_ Flock, had moved on with their lives. They were leaving me here for good, forever.

The days melted into weeks, which faded into months. I couldn't tell the exact amount of time I was there for because the bright hospital white lights stayed on all the time. I got fed, sometimes, if they were in a good mood. I never tried using the energy again; I just accepted I was going to die in there. My life was over... But this time there was no one coming to save me, I was completely and utterly on my own.

_My life sucks... _Which was the understatement of the whole freaking century.

Iggy 

I had another dream about Nudge, a different one. She was in a white room, just sitting staring into a mirror that was hung on the opposite wall. Then the dream sped up, in a kind of fast-forward mode, going so fast as if it was in x32. The days went past but still she remained in the same room, with the same expression that screamed '_there is no hope!'_ It nearly killed me to see my Nudge so hopeless, there were big black circles under her eyes that never changed but as the days slipped past, the terrible injuries that covered her body healed until they were just scars. She moved slightly when she went to sleep but apart from that, she didn't move at all, just stayed staring at the wall with her legs tucked up to her chest.

The last thing I saw was the 'camera' zooming in on her huge brown eyes, completely devoid of hope and happiness. I couldn't help it, I started screaming her name over and over, hoping she'd hear and see me. Instead, I woke to a half asleep Fang and Gazzy (we share a room) shaking me awake, and shushing me so I didn't wake the whole house.

'What's wrong Iggy? You were yelling N-Nudge's name for like five minutes...' Gaz trailed off and gave me a hesitate hug. He was still so young and I mentally hit myself for screaming out loud, I probably scared him to death.

'You alright man?' Fang's voice was low and worried; probably for my mental health. 'Do you want me to go get Max or someone...?'

'No, no, you're fine. I just... just want to go back to... I'm just... I'm fine guys, I swear.' They hesitated, obviously still doubting me. 'Seriously, just leave me alone and let me sleep. 'I'll be okay in the morning.' I rolled over and closed my eyes, waiting for the sound of their footsteps away from my bed. They eventually left me alone, and soon their breathing slipped back into the regular pattern that indicated sleep.

I sighed; it had been a horrible first week at school. Max and Fang had gotten detention in their first few hours there, which made Dr. M pretty pissed. I had laughed and slapped fives with Gazzy, betting on how long they'd last in detention. But it was hell getting around without Max or Fang, the humans twittered and giggled and whispered every time I headed to a class alone. I hated not being able to suddenly flash out my wings and show everyone there who was the more powerful, or not being able to _see_ who was talking to me or who was making out with who in the corner beside my locker (and trust me, there was always people sucking face, according to the creepily loud sounds I could hear every time I got books from my locker – they were a waste of time anyway since I couldn't see the page! But the school didn't know I was blind so I just drifted off in classes I didn't have with people I know and hoped I wouldn't get asked to read).

'Ugh' I sighed, trying to convince myself that I was just having a bad day and that life in general would –hopefully- look better in the morning. I was such an idiot, my whole life_ still _revolved around Nudge, even though she was dead. Yesterday, a girl had scurried up to me and asked me out. Yeah, you heard right. A. Girl. Asked. _Me_. Out. Right in front of Max and Fang.

Me, being stupid Iggy, had suddenly gotten a flashback of Nudge laughing with her perfect hair blowing in the breeze and blanked. Like, what was I supposed to do?! I quickly stuttered a reply, a rejection really, and legged it out of there. I heard the girl running as well, probably in the opposite direction as far away from me as possible, but I could only see Nudge's beautiful face. I had stumbled blindly through the crowds, hearing Fang yell my name, loudly, and start running after me.

I bolted out of school, not caring if I was run over something or hit someone, and down the road. But then... _**Wham!**_ Fang threw his whole body on me to get me to stop before I outran him, with the force of like a thousand elephants. 'Nice tackle...' I wheezed when I could breathe again and he punched me, hard, in the arm.

'What the _hell_, man! You're so different these days and you just left that poor girl standing there... Everyone's worried about you and you never joke or make bombs anymore, Max is going to freak at you when we get home – so is Dr. M. actually, since we're technically missing school but whatever – and I can't blame Max for being worried. Nudge is _dead_ Iggy, we all miss her to bits but she's _gone._ You can't let little things, like a hot girl asking you out, get to you like this.' His voice was low and sad; I scowled and pushed him off me, quickly getting to my feet.

'Fine, Fang! Nudge is _dead_, are you happy? Just leave me alone...' And with that I brushed some imaginary dirt I couldn't see off my coat and stalked off in a random direction. It took me a few seconds to realise I was going in the wrong direction, but I kept going anyway, silently cursing my crappy direction skills on the ground. It took me hours to get home, mostly due to my stubbornness about asking people for directions, but when I finally stomped through the front door, I could hear Max yelling at Fang. Probably about me.

'I'm home' I yelled to the house and ran upstairs, quickly locking myself into my room before anyone could pester me with questions or go all concerned on me. There was a crash over in the corner and a startled cry. Gazzy. He muttered an excuse, opened the window, and jumped out. I listened to make sure he didn't hurt himself landing, but when I heard him touchdown perfectly; I closed the window with a bang and got into bed, pulling the covers over my head when I heard the others coming up. That's when the dream started.

_Oh God, they probably think I've gone completely mad..._ First yesterday and now this, maybe I _was _crazy. I just couldn't grasp of the idea of Nudge really being dead, it was probably a mixture of my weird dreams and my sadness over her death, but I just couldn't imagine the rest of my life without her. I was half expecting her to jump out whenever we went somewhere. I couldn't move on without her.

_My life sucks... _

**Well, that's it! I hope it was up to everyone's high standards ;) I'm sorry if Ig seems kinda depressed and OOC in the chapter but he's just sad and confused by**

**Thanks to the following for reviewing the last chapter:****  
**Constant-Rae-of-Sunshine  
Zoey625  
lunarecplise  
BookFan22 a.k.a. GwenFan22  
nequam-tenshi  
MEGGEM  
MaxRide05

**I have no school for the next few days because of the snow in Ireland (It's the most extreme weather in 46 years!) so I will try and update before I go back to school... But I need reviews!  
If I don't get more reviews than the last chapter (which was 7)... I'm not going to post the next chapter for a while... I'm mean, I know! **

**Please REVIEW!**


	13. Chapter 13

**I'm so sorry, everyone! I've been crazy busy with the stupid snow melting, school starting earlier than expected, idiot teachers, homework, test... Jeesh, two of the busiest weeks ever!  
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I (still) do not own Maximum Ride...**

**Enjoy the chapter – I tried to make it good!**

Nudge POV- nine months later:

I survived another day in the hell-hole. Yahoo. I scratched another notch into the white wall behind me, with an expressionless face. Only weak people showed their emotions, I had soon learned it was easier not to show weakness on your face, you showed how vulnerable you were. I had turned into a female Fang. _Fang._ That name sent tremors around my body, tremors of anger.

I gripped the rusty nail, I had found in a rare plate of food one night, so hard it went into my skin. I stared numbly at my bleeding hand, thinking of the family that had betrayed me; I hated them with a passion. I swore to myself, one lonely night near the beginning of my time in this horrible place, that if I ever got out I would hunt them down and make them hurt as much as I had. And that was a lot of hurt.

The scientists made me sick; they would watch me all day from behind the stupid mirror in the corner, probably taking notes on my every move... Not that I did much, anyway. They never talked, only slid the water (food was a luxury) under the steel door, the same every day. I had not heard another human being speak to me in under a year. At first, I used to talk to myself, to fill the crushing silence that threatened to overcome me. I had been weak and stupid, thinking I could escape then... I was smarter these days.

There was 273 notches on the wall, which I took to be around nine months. Those nine months plus the three months before I had put in this inescapable room, made twelve. I had been trapped here a year.

I sat in silence, 'celebrating' my year anniversary, when the door opened. Fully opened, not the cat-flap thing they used every day for water. An Eraser warily walked in, gripping a boy around my age, with a whitecoat behind him. I stared at them, for the first time in months showing my emotions on my face. The whitecoat had a tray of food in his shaking hands; a beaker of water was rocking dangerously on the tray that was threatening to fall out of his hands.

The boy was roughly thrown to the ground, the tray dropped at my feet, the door slammed shut as the Eraser and whitecoat scurried out as fast as they possibly could. _Wimps_. I turned slowly around to the boy still lying on the ground. 'Collin... Is that you?' My voice was so scratched and barely audible from months of silence.

He stirred; his body clothed in weird hospital-y clothes, and looked happily up at me. 'Nudge! You're alive...' He scrambled up and enveloped me in a giant bear hug. I froze, after not having contact with anyone for months, it was slightly disturbing. He realised I wasn't moving and immediately dropped his arms, his face concerned. 'How long have you been in this room for? It's so... colourless and kind of creepy...'

I sat down tiredly, Collin doing the same. I motioned to the wall where I made my notches and he stared at it with horror. 'Are you serious, Nudge?' I nodded, my eyes full with a dull sadness for my situation. 'No, no, NO! Where the _hell_ is the Nudge _I_ know...? The Nudge who doesn't let anyone knock her around, who always puts up a fight... sometimes just for the fun of it! Remember Jonathon McCarthy, back in school, he called you a stupid immigrant and then you broke his nose (his face never did look the same)... Nudge you-you... Nudge _you can't let them win._ You can't give into them –fight back...' The last part was a whisper and as he gripped my shoulders, I slowly met his eyes.

They were the same piercing blue that they had been the first day I'd seen him here, the colour of the sky I hadn't seen in over a year. His eyes were troubled and filled with a deep hope for the future. I suddenly remembered I had promised to bring him home, when the Flock had come. But they weren't coming. 'My-my Flock aren't coming for me, Collin... I can't get you out of here. I'm so sorry.'

He sat back for a second, rocking back on his heels, his face guarded and his eyes hooded. Suddenly, he looked up at me with a look I had seen often on the faces of Angel, Gazzy and myself when looking at Max. 'You can do it... We'll bust out together, Nudge. It's perfect!' His eyes were shining at the thought of finally getting out of the School.

'But I- Collin it's not that easy... It's- this... The School is a top secret experimentation facility in the middle of nowhere with amazingly good security and bloodthirsty security guards... We can't get out of here alive.' My voice was quiet and serious as I breathed a heavy sigh. I raised my heavy gaze back up to meet his trusting one. 'If we try this then we will probably _die_... I'm being perfectly serious, Collin. Why are you still smiling like that? It's making me nervous...'

He kept grinning like a fool, his eyes sparking and he leaned over to give me a hug. 'Let's do it! I can finally go home, and if I don't make it, then thank God I'll be free and away from this torture.' I raised one eyebrow, but half smiled so he'd know I understood him.

'Okay, we'll do this... By the way, how the _hell_ did you manage to get them to take you to me?' I was confused big time; Collin was a little skinny thing, like me, with a mop of wavy blonde hair and big blue eyes. Eyes like Angel's. _Angel. _My fists clenched and I dug my nails into the palms of my hands, drawing blood, lots of blood... I was suddenly so angry that my breaths started to come out in angry gasps. Collin glanced from my hands that were dripping blood, to my face that was pinched on anger and just gave me an understanding smile, that somehow made my anger melt away.

He grinned, his smile lighting up my day once again. 'It's not hard when you can do this...' He cleared his throat and cracked his knuckles loudly. I watched with an expressionless face, I wasn't about to start grinning like an idiot all of a sudden. He swelled his chest, his face twisted and then he screamed. Like, _shrieked his lungs out_... His scream sounded like a cat being run over by a car or someone dying. I forgot about my 'rules' and my jaw dropped, completely gobsmacked, my hands over my ears trying to block the painful noise out. _That kid has an amazing set of lungs..._ He continued his scream-y thing for a few more seconds and then turned to smirk at me. 'I totally made one of them pee their pants with that. Kept it going for four hours and thirty seven minutes- new record... Beat that, Nudge!'

Getting my old spirit back, I smirked at him. 'Watch and learn...' _Time to do that fire thing... It better work! _I took a few deep breaths, praying it would work and that I wouldn't just look like a fool. I shook my hands out and loosely pointed them away from us, thinking of the Flock. My anger flared up immediately and I focused on pouring my anguish into my arms and out through my outstretched hands. It was like holding a match to a flame, the effect was immediate. The purple energy surged out of me, my hands seeming alight with a purple glow. It resembled a blowtorch as it burned the wall, Collin's gasps of surprise adding to the atmosphere.

I finally stopped it as I felt his hand light on my shoulder. I turned slowly, my face wet with tears of loss and pain, more tears spilling over. He pulled me into a tight embrace, like the ones Iggy and Fang used to give, but for once I didn't immediately react violently to my thoughts about them. 'T-they left me here, Collin... They're not coming for me...' He held me until my tears finally ran out, his shoulder now soaked with my sadness. 'S-s-sorry...' I sniffed, my face growing red.

'Nudge, I'll always be here for you. You can always be yourself around me... I'm here for good, I swear.' He then turned to the wall I had just destroyed with my fire. 'Hopefully they won't notice that...' He squeezed my hand and we turned to face the mirror behind us. In the reflection, I could see a tall, skinny girl with a face so thin and with so much dark bags under her big brown doe eyes that she looked like a skeleton. Her dark brown hair, which had changed from impossibly frizzy to a gentle wave, framed her face and there were caramel streaks though it. The girl's skin was a deep coffee colour, with a long scar running down the right side of her face. Her body was skinny but curvy in all the right places, making her look older than she really was. She had tear tracks down her cheeks and such an emotionless, blank face that she looked like she had been carved from stone.

Her arms, wrists and ankles looked so skinny and underfed that it seemed all she needed was a touch and she'd be broken. Her eyes were determined and full of fire, though, the kind of will that professional sports people wish they had before a race or event. The brown eyes looked so much more mature than they should have been, as if the girl had seen and experienced things way before her time.

It took me a moment to realise the girl in the mirror was me. I gasped and reached out a hand to touch the mirror, the girl reaching her slender hand that looked painfully thin out also. After a few minutes of looking at the new me, Collin gently tugged at my hand saying, 'Do you want to finish off that wall, Nudge? Preferably before they come running in with guns...' I tore myself away from the mirror, and looked at him, confused for a second. He motioned to the half demolished wall, smiling at my reaction to my reflection.

I didn't even need to conjure up thoughts about the Flock or make myself mad to start the energy flowing, I just thought about how Collin and I would be escaping together and I felt that amazing rush of power. It quickly blasted the rest of the wall away, leaving only chunks of cement in its place. The alarms started blaring, red emergency lights flashing. We hopped over the remains of the wall that had once kept me confined and sprinted down the hall.

My legs were rubbery from not running in almost a year, but I pushed myself to the limit, forcing my body to move faster and faster. We turned left, right, right, left, right... Just trying to find a window we could break open and escape from. The alarms were still going off and I could hear footsteps behind us. _Faster, faster... KEEP GOING!_ My mind was screaming at me as we ran for our freedom. And our lives.

After what seemed like hours of running, we finally came to a window... Overlooking a training yard where Erasers were hunting experiments. I pushed ahead of Collin, shattering the glass with a well placed kick, ignoring the shards that stuck deep into my skin. He froze, seeing our pursuers at the end of the corridor for the first time. I opened my wings and held my arms out for him to jump into. He hesitated, slightly awestruck at seeing my wings for the first time, afraid I wouldn't be able to keep us both up.

I grabbed him under the arms and jumped straight out, ignoring his terrified screams. We were much higher than I had first thought. I struggled to get my wings to work after months of sitting still and motionless, Collin was a deadweight in my arms as we plummeted to the earth, his legs dangling helplessly... Towards the Erasers that were now waiting for us on the ground.

_No! I've come too far to die like this, damnit!_ I started flapping like mad, desperate to get away. We slowly stopped falling wildly and I shrieked with joy as we started rising upwards. The Erasers, seeing their prey was getting away, pulled out those massive machine guns you see in movies. Yeah, the ones that are normally bigger than the average person's head. We were so screwed. Collin started yelling as the first few bullets shot past us; I dodged and tried to concentrate on getting out of range.

Then their aim started to improve... Just as we were about to reach the top of the impossibly tall security fence, a bullet found its mark. One of my wings. I gritted my teeth and tried not to feel the shooting pain that started to consume my whole wing, just trying to get us just a little higher so we could get over the electric fence. More bullets found their mark and I could vaguely hear Collin's horrified screams as my body started to fail me. Suddenly we were spinning, out of control, spiralling back to our prison. I managed to angle myself, in the few moments when we were free falling, so that my body was under Collin's, making it so I would break his fall. I squeezed my eyes shut... This was going to be painful.

_**Slam!**_ I hit the ground with such force that I couldn't breathe or even start to _think_ about moving for a few minutes. _Note to self: a few minutes is all a couple hundred Eraser's need to grab you and your partner, and surround you._ I was limp in my Erasers' arms, my eyes barely open. They held me up as we were pushed into the circle of the Erasers, which resembled an extreme bully circle. I collapsed the minute they let go of me, my legs buckling under me. I lay there, in a puddle of ever growing blood, gasping like a fish for the oxygen my body just couldn't take in fast enough.

Collin dropped to his knees beside me, running his hands over my broken and bleeding wings, his mouth saying words I couldn't make out over the weird buzzing in my ears. I forced my body into a sitting position, ignoring Collin's panicking and protesting, my wings folding in painfully. After a few more seconds, I clenched my hands into fists and staggered to my feet, ignoring my dizziness and the black dots that clouded my vision. I had my hands weakly held out, ready to blast the freaks into oblivion, when I heard a scream of pain... And a gun being cocked.

I whirled around to see Collin being held (in an awkward position) by a humongous scientist with a massive gun being pointed to his head. _Ah, crap... _I choked and gave the extremely pale Collin a tight-lipped smile, except it came out more as a painful grimace. The fat whitecoat with the gun smiled a sick smile at me; I gave him the finger in response. 'Now don't move your hands, N45g3, just put them down... Or I'll put a hole in your little friend's head... Got it?'

My hands twitched, desperate to fry the dude off the face of the earth, but I lowered them slowly. Collin suddenly yelled out, screaming at me to 'Duck... He's behind you!' It was like a bad pantomime, where everyone knows what's going to happen except the person it's happening to. Instead of ducking, I (stupidly) turned to see an Eraser behind me, swinging a huge metal object at my face.

I didn't even get a chance to scream. The hunk of metal slammed into my face with impossible force and I was a goner. The fast explosion of pain and then Collin's desperate scream were the last things I felt before I faded away. My vision started ebbing and I could feel something hot dripping down my face. I slid to the ground and slipped away. Just away...

Third Person POV:

Collin anxiously paced the small room they had been placed in for the hundred time. Of course the theme of the room was white. Nudge was outstretched on the floor, in a bloody circle; in as comfortable a position as Collin had felt okay in doing, he didn't want to hurt her more. His eyes darted around nervously as he heard a slamming door somewhere else in the building of hell. He suddenly crouched down beside Nudge, hearing a hitch in her breathing, his heart suddenly pounding against his chest. He realised that at any time they might come and take her away, so he started to bandage her wounds properly.

There was now a deep cut on her forehead, to the right, it was parallel to the top of her long crescent moon scar. It was still oozing blood under the strips of Collin's shirt he had placed around her head and his bloody fingers fumbled with the makeshift bandage as he attempted to gently peel it off. The sight underneath was not one for the fainthearted or squeamish. Her head had been split open by the sharp edge of the metal crowbar and the wound was tinged a worrying yellow at the sides. He quickly tore his shirt off and tore it up into more strips and then, using half the shirt, he gently wrapped the bandage around her head and moved onto her wing.

The bullet had torn through it and was (thankfully) not lodged in her wing. Collin didn't have much experience with wings but he tried to remember the science classes he had slept through, desperately racking his mind for some information on how to bandage a broken wing that had also been shot at. His mind came up with nothing so he just took some of the remaining strips and placed a wad of them on the injured part, trying to stop the flow of blood and then wrapped another strip around it to keep it in place.

There were also some other not so serious injuries around her body but Collin bandaged and took care of them too with the remaining strips. His fingers twitched as he tried to decide what to do next; Nudge was still unconscious and probably would be for the next while judging from her head, Collin was shivering like a leaf because he had taken his shirt off, the sound of banging doors kept getting louder and he was getting more nervous by the second, their escape plan had gone completely wrong... The most important thing in Collin's mind though, was getting Nudge out of there safely.

He was mentally running himself into a brick wall over and over again. It was _his _fault Nudge was hurt and _his _fault the whitecoat got him, forcing Nudge to surrender. He dropped his head into his hands and cursed himself for being so stupid... He should have planned the escape out and waited to tell her before they had gone running off to what could have been Nudge's death. She probably hated him now. His head was pounding as the events of the past few hours went through his head at lightning speed. How could he have been so stupid?!

Nudge started to stir, murmuring slightly as she rolled over, Collin crouched over her to make sure she didn't lie on her wing or any other hurt part. 'Flock... Gone forever... Deserted me, not good enough for them...' Collin, intrigued to know more about the great 'Flock' he had heard about, leaned closer and started to listen. 'They hate me... _I _hate them, but they left me... I hate me, such a failure... Not worthy to be in Flock... Right to leave me here to die...' She drifted off again but Collin was left staring in shock at her.

The Flock must have left her, for good... But why? His hands clenched and he was suddenly overwhelmed by anger stronger than he had even felt before. She was _Nudge_, she was perfect in every way. How could they just leave her in here, like a puppy left to drown in a river...? Collin started pacing again, his hands constantly clenching, his mind racing and his eyes full of fire. He had to protect Nudge, do what her 'family' hadn't. And if he ever,_ ever_ met those back-stabbing traitors, he would kill them. They had destroyed his Nudge, left her stranded on an island of death and despair.

She was so different now from the first time he had met her in school and even when he had met her in _The_ School, she was broken now. Collin made a vow right then, he would always protect Nudge and make sure she got out of there alive. And if he failed... Collin didn't think he'd ever be able to live with himself. His hands fumbled as he reached for the big sharp piece of metal they had thrown in with them, the one that had knocked Nudge unconscious. He found the sharp edge in a second and, with a long look to Nudge, slit the inside of his hand open.

Collin stared at the dripping blood for a moment, and then he whispered quietly, 'I promise to protect and care for you forever, Nudge. And if your "Flock" ever come for you, I'll _kill_ them. Kill them for leaving you, kill them for making you so empty and broken, and kill them for causing you so much pain. I vow to do these things and it's sealed in my _blood..._' His voice was slow and deadly, his eyes full of commitment as he stared at Nudge and vowed his everlasting commitment to her. 'I won't leave you, ever. I won't let them hurt you...'

He then knelt down and very gently kissed Nudge on the cheek, savouring each moment he had with her, before sitting with his back to her and readying himself for the future and what may come. His back to Nudge, he stared at the blank white door, trying to contemplate his escape and how exactly he was going to protect Nudge in this hell on earth. His lips slowly turned upwards, in spite of his situation. He had fulfilled half of his goal that he had set himself almost a year ago when they took Nudge away; _he had found her at last and she wasn't dead._

Step two: Escape...

**So... How was it? I promise to include Iggy in the chapter and make the next one happier!  
PLEASE review and tell me what you thought! I'll try and update by next weekend but I need reviews to motivate (and help!) me!**

**Peace out, addicted-2-oxygen :)**


	14. Chapter 14

**I'm so sorry for the horribly late update... Last week was like a disaster week for me – everything went wrong!  
I hope people like this chapter!**

Fang POV: Nine months later, also

My eyes wandered and found Angel's big blue ones, that were staring intently at me, through the tears in her eyes. Beside me, Max was clutching tightly to Gazzy who was shaking with sobs and Angel was clutching to Iggy's hand as though it was a life preserver and she was sinking in the ocean. Only I was alone. My hands were clenched into fists as I breathed in the crisp, fresh air around me and let my thoughts shift to a topic I had forbidden myself to think of when surrounded by people, no matter who those people were: Nudge.

Today was the year anniversary of her death and we –The Flock- had flown to the meadow where we had the, uh memorial service (?) for her last year. The sky was blue and clear, hopefully a sign for the year ahead. We were all dealing with her death in our own individual ways; Angel and Gazzy spent more time just with each other or just alone, _just thinking_, as Angel had told me once. Max mothered them more now, as if she wanted to protect them every second of the day (I couldn't blame her... I felt that way too) and she sometimes would look lost with a foreign expression of longing and sadness visible only in her eyes.

Iggy would deny it at any cost but I knew the truth, he had loved Nudge. Even now, he had dreams about her and would wake up sweating and with a crazed look on his face, as if he had seen her alive but in a terrible place. I knew he was dreaming about Nudge by the look in his eyes, the intense love for one person, so much love that you would do anything just to keep that person safe and happy. I kept quiet when he woke from these dreams, knowing from experience that he would try and brush it off and scoff at me, saying I was 'imagining things' and to 'go back to sleep and leave me alone!' His hands after these dreams would be clenched into fists and his body tense and stiff, as if he really had seen terrible things believed the dreams were true.

My mistake once was asking Angel what he saw in these infamous dreams, if they were_ really_ about Nudge. She had come away shaking and crying, whispering softly, 'He can see her, Fang. Like, really _see_ her, like he's there... In the School with her, suffering along with her, believing she's alive.' I had gathered her into a hug and explained that Nudge really was dead, though my mind had sped away from logic and started coming up with ridiculous case scenarios where Nudge had actually survived.

I stood there, in the meadow with the perfect weather and scenery, and opened the floodgates of memories involving Nudge. The result was crippling, my mind overflowed with thoughts, mental pictures and treasured memories of her. I let out a cry and dropped to my knees, burying my head in my hands, trying to extinguish the pain that came with remembering. It's not that I didn't want to remember... Just if I had thoughts of Nudge in my head all day, I would get lost in them, and drop my guard, making us the perfect target for any of our enemies.

At least one of us had to be alert all the time and I had silently stepped up to that job, vowing to always protect my family from danger. I had sworn to myself, after _that_ night, I would save the others from everything, to do what I had failed to do with Nudge. My shoulders shook as I let my emotions out silently, trying to remember exactly what brand of shampoo had been _her_ favourite, what shade of pink she had wanted to decorate her room, determined not to let any tiny details escape my minds. I felt Max's gentle touch on my back and I slowly stood, shaking off the feeling of misgiving that had settled on my conscience whenever I thought about that night.

The others looked at my closed off face that showed dried tear tracks and seemed to disintegrate at the sight of me losing control. Angel and Gaz broke down into sobs and ran to me, clinging to me as I picked them both up, one in each arm. Iggy and Max moved close and suddenly we were all crying, for the sister we had lost far too soon, all of us together as a proper Flock. All mashed together, I realised something... That no matter how far apart we would ever be or how many other people (humans) get added into our messed up equation, it all comes back to just us. The Flock.

We slept in the meadow that night, too sad and empty to fly back to Dr. M's house. I wouldn't call it home. Home was back in the E-house, all of us together, when things were simple and no complications messed up our lives. We crashed in the trees that surrounded the meadow and it brought me back to when we were on the run, when Nudge used to fuss and rant about having no hot showers for days, talk constantly and fix any holes we got in our clothes with a little handy sewing kit she had practically worshipped. I stared at the stars, wishing things could go back to normal, where kids like us didn't have to deal with whitecoat murderers and wolf men who will come and kill your little sister, messing up your whole family, in a second without batting an eyelid.

But for us that will never be the case. We are freaks born and bred, destined to a life as outcasts and misfits, never to fit into society. _Ugh... Why is my life so messed up!_ I was finally granted with the gift of a dreamless sleep and, thankfully, a secure branch that did not break under my weight.

I woke up the next morning to the smell of deliciously greasy fast food. Perfect. My stomach rumbled as I tumbled out of the tree and ran unsteadily towards the food that was screaming at me to '_eat me, eat me_!' I couldn't let all the perfect food down, so, being the perfect citizen, I shovelled a good few hamburgers, lots of fries and a couple of milkshakes down without any guilt. We sat around out 'camp' for around an hour in silence, waiting for someone to make the tiring decision to head back.

At last Max slowly stood, her eyes weary and full of pain, 'We should head back guys, I want to be back before dark.' Her words were carefully said and heavy with regret. Regret about what had happened and regret for the future, the future without Nudge. No one moved and my dark eyes met hers beautiful brown ones, seeing right through the carefully calculated mask she had arranged, seeing right through to her soul. I glanced at the others, taking note of the immense sadness and pain in their faces that was barely concealed, and stood up too.

Max didn't resist when in one swift movement; I had her in my arms. I kissed her full on the mouth, letting out all my emotions, and just holding her tight to my body. I felt her pain radiating out from her soul in agonizing waves, her silky hair was tumbling down her shoulders in glossy waves and she smelled like Max: a hint of vanilla ice-cream, mixed in with creamy chocolate. She was mine.

I glanced up and saw Angel and Gazzy talking quietly, their heads bent towards each other. Iggy was staring straight ahead, tears spilling over his blue eyes, his hands clenched in fists. I motioned at him to Max and watched her eyes become clouded with worry and her forehead crease with worry lines. 'We're just going for a quick walk, okay?' I called out, the others nodding numbly in agreement. I grabbed Max's hand and practically dragged her into the surrounding woods, my legs working quickly to cover distance.

I finally stopped, collapsing from weariness on a tree stump, pulling Max onto my lap as I sat. She gazed quizzically at me as I started to speak, but did not interrupt. 'I'm worried about Ig...' I finally blurted out, 'He seems so much more different and I think he may believe Nudge is still, you know, _alive _after all this time.' My word rang out in the small forest, making me cringe back from them; they seemed so much more real and solid in the mid-morning air.

'I know what you mean. I've noticed it too, hell, how could you not notice it? I don't know what to do about it without hurting him... It's so hard on all of us, but, Iggy... He takes everything differently.' Max's hands were nervously playing with mine, her eyes closed in frustration. I dropped my head into her hair and sighed. It was all happening too fast and I was getting left behind.

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, a scream of pure terror split the cool afternoon air. _Angel_. Another yell of fear joined it and my heart almost skipped a beat as I recognised the Gasman's voice, and then my heart really did skip a beat (or three) when I heard their screams be cut off suddenly. In the space of two seconds, Max and I were on our feet and full out sprinting towards the meadow, not even needing to look at each other. I pushed my stride out, willing myself to go faster. To prevent the same thing from happening. I couldn't let that happen, not again. I'd never be able to live with myself again.

My heart was literally in my mouth as I heard Iggy curse like crazy and Angel's screams of pain. My feet were flying over the ground, my eyes focused on one thing only: _Save my family._ I could feel Max's body beside me, her breaths coming out in short gasps, her hair flying out like a golden cape behind her. My eyes were full of murder and my body ready to kill as I burst into the meadow, my mouth set in a steady line, my heart hardened and in battle-mode.

I stormed into the meadow, which now looked more like a battle-field to me, and felt Max freeze beside me. The sight was so wrong and different to what it had been just twenty minutes ago, it made me choke and want to scream and shout with pain, anger and resentment for _them_ and my life. They had found us. Once again, we had been added into a twisted equation without knowing. I hate my life.

_They're here..._

Nudge POV:

The world was black. My hands fiddled with wires and I was leaning against a tree trunk. My eyes felt open and I could feel a cool breeze blowing, making my eyes sting when I tried to force them open to see... But I was _still_ seeing black. My body was moving without me having to think about it and as I messed with the wires, my mouth began to hum a soft tune. I must have known the song, as my hands put down the wires and stuff and started to drum the air.

What the H-e-double-hockey-sticks **(A/N: Sorry... I couldn't resist!) **was going on?! Why wasn't I in control of myself? How did I escape the School? Where was Collin? Was I blind now? What th-

Then it hit me... I was (somehow) in Iggy's head. He loved that tune; he used to hum it everywhere. Well, until I decked him one time because it was getting on my nerves (For the record, he punched me back and we got in a fist fight that Max had to break up with the help of Fang). It explained the blindness and the whole not-having-control-of-anything thing that seemed to be going on. But how did I get here? I didn't even want to be here, I hated the Flock, they betrayed me. I wanted nothing more than to be back with Collin, even if that meant back in the School.

I decided it was a dream and decided to try and wake up. After several moments of chanting _'Wake up, wake up, wake up...',_ I concluded that I was stuck here until my dream ended. Great... I had been Iggy's mind for around an hour, just counting down the minutes till it was all over, when things suddenly changed. I heard a weird buzzing and what seemed like thousands of footsteps, which was odd, seeing as I had only heard two other sets of footsteps before. What was going on?

Iggy jumped to his feet, his mouth barking orders I didn't listen to. I was focused on the fact that I could hear Angel whimpering and Gazzy shifting from foot to foot. Then, I felt myself (which really was Iggy...) being grabbed from behind and I started screaming. Iggy's mouth opened and instead of a terrified scream, a flow of swear words came tumbling out like a waterfall. The mystery people pinned my arms behind my back and shoved something into my (Iggy's) stomach.

Angel and Gazzy started screaming then and I felt an immense pain blooming in my gut. My heart was breaking, I hated them but I didn't want them to be hurt. I wanted them to be hurt emotionally, not physically. I wanted to hurt them. I twisted and fought to get out of Ig's mind, I didn't want to 'see' them go through this. I wanted to still be mad at them and hate them, not end up in one of their minds and be trapped there while who knows what happened.

I was screaming and crying, kicking and punching at nothing. But then nothing became something and the light came back. I felt myself being restrained and I screamed louder, glad I was back again. 'Wh-Nudge! Stop fighting me, it's me. _Nudge_!' My hands flew out and caught his shoulders, gripping them so tightly my knuckles were aching.

I stared at his face without really seeing it, still half in the dream. 'Iggy? Iggy! _Iggy_...' My reaction was unexpected, to both me and the boy. My fist swung back on its own accord and caught him in the jaw, my other one already punching him in the stomach. I tried to leap up, only to be stopped by a crippling pain in my head. 'Wha- my head!' I collapsed back down and curled into a ball, moaning and clutching my head. I was surprised to feel a bandage going the whole way around my head, another on my outstretched wing.

The boy scrambled over me, checking the bandages and babbling on at me. I couldn't hear his words though, I was captivated by his face, the face I had mistaken for Iggy's that was gazing worriedly down at me now. His jaw was already beginning to swell and I could see numerous other bruises and cuts along his body, his torso (he was shirtless) was muscled for his age and his hair was tousled, making him look all bad-boy. 'Nudge... Do you know who I am now?'

'You're... You're... Collin. That's it, that's your name.' I felt really dizzy and the room was rocking and spinning. _Weird..._ Collin started to help me over so I could lean against the wall but something was troubling me. 'Collin... Iggy! Where is he?' I needed to see Iggy, to be able feel and touch him with my hands, to make sure he was alright. My heart was screaming at me to find him, but my mind was reminding me that he betrayed me. _Iggy left you here... He doesn't care about some worthless loser... Leave him alone..._ _Focus on your own life... You swore to hate them..._ I did though. I hated them with all my body and soul but somehow, a tiny piece of me still longed for Iggy.

'Nudge... I think you're getting confused, we tried to escape yesterday but we got caught and you got knocked unconscious with a giant metal bar –sorry about that- but _Iggy_' He spat the name out like it was poison, 'has never been here. You must have been having some sort of weird dream... Are you okay?' I nodded yes and relaxed against the wall. My head was killing me (hopefully not literally) and I could feel my bones complaining at me.

Collin had just settled beside me and we were sitting in silence, not the awkward one you have with strangers but a comfortable one, when the door flew open. I didn't even have time to react I was so exhausted, but Collin was in front of me within a second, his body shielding me from the trespassers. Before they had a chance to speak, it was obvious from the looks I was getting that they were here for me, Collin cut in. 'No.' They laughed a bit and went to dodge him, heading straight for me.

I whimpered in pain as the big one caught hold of me, watching almost in slow-motion as Collin reeled round and caught him in the back with a savage kick. The whitecoat yelled in pain and whirled around to face my hero who resembled a scrawny puppy beside him. 'No.' Collin repeated, 'Take me instead, just leave Nudge here and don't hurt her.'

I went to protest but the second whitecoat spoke up, giving the other one a look. Like, a _look_ look. 'Okay, you want to come out and play with the big boys? Fine, just remember it was your choice...' He swung Collin onto his shoulders like a sack of potatoes and started to march out. I screamed and tried to stand, ignoring the dizziness and pain. I managed a few steps and ended up on the floor again.

'Nudge! Nudge, I'll be fine... Don't worry. Hey! You won't hurt her will you? _Will you_?!' Collin's voice went all scary at the end and he started to punch and kick the shoulder he was draped across.

'Fine, we won't hurt her... this time. We can't say the same for you though!'

'No! Collin come-' But the door was slammed in my face and my pleas were desperate. Now everything I had was gone. If they didn't bring him back, there would be hell to pay... In my weakened state, I tried to conjure up the purple flames that had once destroyed a whole wall. I only managed to light my finger alight with the purple energy. The energy fizzled out fast as my energy faded and I felt the emptiness that always came when the beautiful gift left.

I needed Collin more than he could ever realise, he was my only reason for staying alive in this place. That, and _revenge_....

**Well... How was it? I'm sorry if it's too depressing, I started out with the intention of making this a happy chapter but when my fingers touched the keyboard, somehow it changed!  
Thanks for all the amazing reviews... Imaginary cookies and pancakes to all the awesome reviewers! I'm having a small bit of writers block so please REVIEW and tell me what you liked/disliked/want to see more of... I really need your help!  
I'll try and update as soon as possible but reviews make me go faster! **

**Peace out fanfiction-ers!**


	15. Chapter 15

**I'm sorry for the long update! My computer decided to break down over the weekend (Grrr...) and I lost this chapter...****But I typed it up as fast as I could! Enjoy!**

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Fang:

They had us good. From an outsider's point of view, they had picked the perfect time to attack: the one year anniversary of the sister they had killed horribly. Nice.

As we sprinted into the meadow and promptly stopped, as if a glass wall had been slammed in front of us, my heart clenched and shrivelled into a black lump with anger and pain. The first thing I saw was Iggy, half slumped against one of them with blood seeping out from between his fingers which were pressed against his side weakly. His eyes were clouded with pain but he was shouting a name, over and over. It was Nudge's name. Angel and the Gasman were protesting and struggling to get to him, having not seen us yet.

I roared, like_ roared_, and flung myself into the 'battle.' I got about two feet before they got me. In my defence there were over a thousand Flyboys and five bird-kids that were totally unprepared for anything. My hands were forced behind my back, despite my efforts, and my flailing legs were tied down with this type of metal rope. _Damn, I can't break freaking metal._ A quick glance showed the rest of the Flock were restrained the same way as me._ I hate robots with a freaking passion_.

The monsters picked each of us up, Iggy limp in their hands, his blood making his clothes crimson all over, and started to fly. I tried to catch Max's eye but she was focused on Iggy, repeating his name, trying to get him alert and assess his wound. She had no luck, he was out cold. She then turned to me, worry evident in her eyes, telling me silently _we can't get out of this, not with Iggy down. We'll just have to go along with them until we can escape._ I nodded my approval, my body aching from the tight restraints that were the only thing keeping me from ripping a couple of hundred Flyboy heads off.

The buzzing of the robot army went on for hours, making me practically deaf by the time we touched down in the middle of nowhere. I grunted -they had taped my mouth over when I started yelling- in repressed anger as they tossed us on the dusty ground just inside the massive building that I assumed was the School, forming a tight circle so we couldn't escape. We quickly undid the restraints; there was a complicated catch that could be undone from the back and the tape was ripped unmercifully from my face by the Gasman. Max immediately dropped beside the unconscious Iggy as I checked Angel and Gaz over, they had bruises that were going to hurt like _hell_ later, but apart from that, they were fine.

Iggy, on the other hand, was not. Max's hands trembled as she lifted up his shirt, the wet blood staining her hands a scary red that we were all too familiar with. We all gasped as the search revealed a horrible gash, with metal bits still embedded in the flesh, the laceration oozing blood at a scary rate. Iggy's eyes were rolled back into his head, his hands, face and arms showing the aftermath of a battle. _He must have really fought to get away. _Quickly, Max and I wrapped it up, using my shirt –it would have to do for now-, and tried to get Iggy awake.

'Ig... Iggy, dude, c'mon!' We tried various versions of the same thing and slapped his face several times, but he was still out cold. _Great, that's going to make it a _tad_ bit harder to get the hell outta here... _Angel even tried to "mind-wake" him (that's a really weird experience, trust me...) but she came up with nothing, saying there was an odd mind block that she couldn't get through.

We looked hopefully up at the sky, but scowled when we saw the huge electric fence that covered the entire yard-thing. The circle of Flyboys made me slightly claustrophobic and creeped out – it resembled a bully circle in so many ways. I tried to stand but was immediately shocked by a gun of some sort (it hurt like freaking hell) and was pulled sharply back down by Max. 'What are you doing?!' She hissed, concern on her face as she tried to see the shiny red burn mark that now marked my arm. I shrugged and pushed her away, calculating. We needed to get out, now.

'Bakal de gaters avida?' _How are we going to escape? _I hissed to Max in our secret language, the one we hadn't used in years. We hadn't needed to use it. It took her a minute to grasp the fact that I was speaking _our_ language but just as she was about to reply, the door was flung open and a short fat man came waddling out. I resisted the urge to leap up and smash his face in; I knew I wouldn't get far. It's taken me a while, but I've learned to pick my battles. Well, at least the ones where I'm outnumbered two thousand to fiv-four.

Man, who am I kidding, I went for it. I leapt up and sprinted towards him, determined to make him pay for killing my sister. The Flyboys were a little slow on their reflexes so I got the satisfying view of his piggy face scrunch up in pure fear as I lifted him off the ground and drew back my fist. Of course, then reality caught up with me and I was yanked back by, like, fifty robots and severely beaten for being a 'bad mutant-freak'.

When they finally released me, I limped back to the others, blood streaming down my face and left arm, but a triumphant gleam in my eyes. The look on the pudgy one's face had been_ so_ worth it. They had yet to realise how difficult we could be when we wanted to. And I had a burning desire to be _very _rebellious right then. The scientist, wisely, saw that it would probably be safer (for him and the others behind him) if this interrogation-to-be was continued inside so we (and the unconscious Iggy) were carted inside and tied down to metal chairs. Even Iggy- the one who was positively out cold.

It reminded me of a top class business meeting, where the fancy clients get offered caviar and fancy wine and champagne while the businessmen steal all their money with their overpriced rates. The only differences were that we were physically tied down to what could turn out to be torture chairs, not getting offered any food or liquid whatsoever, one of us was unconscious, the 'businessmen' were currently deciding whether we live or die, we weren't paying them to mess up our lives (they were doing it for free – how lucky were _we_! Please note sarcasm), the freaks had killed our sister... I could go on. But apart from those minor differences, it was exactly the same thing!

They grilled us for awhile, trying to get us to crack and tell them where the experiments we rescued in New York had gone, but we all held our ground. Thanks goodness they didn't take out guns, needles or other torture materials, though. It was, all in all, pretty tame. For the School that is, there were still multiple bruises gained and I think Gaz got a few fingers broken when he tried to imitate their voices, but it was still very mild compared to our childhood.

Just when things were beginning to get a little boring, there was a crash and a high pitched scream from somewhere far off in the building. They rushed to the window, and, around their massive butts, we could see flashes of what seemed like purple flames. One of them swore softly, saying 'That kid's got guts, I tell ya. She's never going to get far.' The scientists exchanged worried looks as the purple flames continued and ran out of the room, barking orders at each other.

We stayed frozen for a moment; one of the experiments was_ escaping_. If one of them could do it, surely the five of us could. We were temporarily forgotten and, taking advantage of that, I started to struggle to get out of these weird chairs. The others, catching onto my idea, started to try as well. Iggy began to stir when we had been at it for a few minutes. He convulsed a few times, not yet realising the situation, and his eyes snapped open to reveal large pupils that were full of worry and stress. He thrashed around, making fresh blood seep into the restraints and drip onto the floor.

'Iggy! Calm down, we're here. We're also captured and tied down, but don't focus on that right now. Are you okay?' Max talked to him softly, trying to get Iggy to calm down before he got the whitecoats to come back. Iggy tensed suddenly and then relaxed back into the chair, his face a mask of pain, both emotional and physical. He groaned softly and tried to break the straps, even though we could see the pain it was causing him. 'Iggy? Just don't move, okay? We'll get you out in a second, so just stay still now; you got pretty torn up a while back.'

'She's here. She's in the building; I can feel her, inside me.' Iggy whispered, his eyes tortured and desperate. 'She's running, they're chasing... Always chasing, never stopping... No! They got her, breaking her, hurting her. Nudge!' We all started, half afraid of what Iggy might come up with next, he must have been disoriented and hallucinating from loss of blood. I strained harder, using all my muscles to try and break free. I needed to get to him, try and calm him before he caught the whitecoats attention and they came charging back.

I could feel the restraints slowly giving way to my strength. I grunted as my body cried out, but continued to fight to get free. My whole body protested as I pushed myself to the very limit. _**Creak...**_ I nearly had it. _C'mon..._ _**Snap!**_ I finally broke one of the buckles and then the rest were no match for me, once I had my right arm free. The others high-fived and hugged once I figured out the catch to their restraints - all except Iggy. He remained motionless in his chair, even after I undid his straps. 'Iggy, c'mon dude. We have to get out of here.'

He looked at me, his eyes hooded and dangerous. 'She's here, Fang. I can feel it.' He sounded so sure and heartbroken, his strawberry blonde hair flopping into his eyes, some steaks stained bright red from the bloody cuts on his face.

'Iggy, Nudge is dead. And we will end up the same way if we don't leave _now_. I know you can see her in your dreams, maybe even see her in real life sometimes. But this is a dangerous and very real situation... Are you willing to risk Angel's, the Gasman's and Max's life on some feeling you get or some dream you have sometimes? Because I'm not. I know you miss her, we all do. But this is serious and we have to get out before something bad happens. Are you with me or not?' My words were cold and harsh; I hated the look that passed through his eyes. I felt like a terrible person for crushing him.

My eyes remained serious and blank while I screamed in my mind _I'm sorry! I'm sorry!_ But I did what needed to be done and it worked. If we wanted to get out of the high security torture facility with bloodthirsty guards alive, we needed to be a team and together. Iggy stood painfully and limped over to the rest of us, his face a picture of pain and despair. Max fussed over him for a few minutes, trying to get Iggy to show her his wound, but he held fast. He weakly pushed her away and she stayed away, understanding Iggy needed space.

We ran to the window, to see if the experiment was still creating a distraction and stopped, amazed. There was a small (tiny beside the huge shapes) figure in the middle of what seemed like hundreds of Erasers, fighting. We were too far away to see her face or any of her features, but we could see the amazing purple balls of energy that seemed to be coming from her hands. Her body was surrounded by a pulsating bubble and her hair was flying around her as she whipped around every few milliseconds to deal with new attackers.

The girl was a brilliant fighter, but there were too many attackers for her to win. The others turned away to discuss battle strategies. But I stayed watching. I winced when they got hits in and I was angry when I saw her blood stain the dirt ground. Something about her seemed familiar, but it meant nothing, I didn't know her. It looked vaguely like—_No_, It couldn't be her. My hand was pressed against the glass, my eyes trained in on her. She looked so much like—I couldn't say it. I turned away just as she took another hard hit that almost brought her to her knees, if I watched for much longer, I wouldn't be able to stop myself from breaking the window and joining her.

I desperately wanted to do that. But my Flock needed me and I could help her more from the outside. That was my logic talking. Damn logic. My heart and soul were screaming at me to help her, but I couldn't. I knew which the smarter thing to do was and all I could do was hope that the mystery girl could hold on until we destroyed this branch of the School. _Hold on..._

Suddenly the bright purple flashes that had been lighting up the room at irregular intervals, stopped. There was an agonizingly painful shriek that filled the air for a few terrible seconds and then... Silence. My heart squeezed, jumping to the worst conclusions, and I clenched my fists. I needed to fight a whitecoat, _any_ whitecoat (I wasn't picky), and hurt him. Badly.

'Let's do this.'

Nudge POV:

I rocked back and forth, my legs tucked up. They had to bring him back. I couldn't live without him. It had been a day and a half. What were they doing to him? Collin had been trying to protect me, now he was gone. Why did the people I care about always either betray me, or sacrifice themselves for me?

The room was strangely empty without Collin, the walls starting to close in on me. I whimpered and started to hyperventilate. What it they forgot about me? What if I used up all the air in here? What if I suffocated? What if Collin never came back? What if—

A loud clang from the door slamming open yanked me from my thoughts. An Eraser stood, jeering at me, in the doorway. 'Is the little birdie scared? Aww, are you missing your little loser friend? He was _really_ yummy, not much meat though. Do you want to be next...?'

_No. Not Collin._

I flung myself on him, like a crazy wildcat that had been deprived of food for days and had just sighted a wonderfully succulent deer or whatever. (Yeah, weird analogy, I've been alone for too long.) My hands burst into purple balls of fire and I felt the consuming rush that always came with the energy. He didn't even have time to scream as I collided with him, my eyes full of fire. As we crashed to the floor, my hands found his throat and I grasped it with both hands that were surrounded with raw energy.

'Where. Is. Collin?' I spat out, slamming his head against the ground. No reply. 'Tell me, you freak. Before I kill you...' My voice sounded so... _Not_ me. Guess rage can do that to a person. He still said nothing and I stood, the Eraser dangling from my hands that were raised above my head. The purple flames swirled around my body, making me resemble a war god or something.

I wanted revenge and I wanted it _now_. My whole life was messed up, my family betrayed me, my best friend (and the only one I had left) had been ripped away from me and I was sick and tired of people deciding my fate. Now was _my_ time to decide things. It was _my _time to control my life.

At first, I thought I hadn't heard anything, but then he repeated it again. 'The second door on the left, building four, on the third floor. I'm sorry.' He said the last part in a whisper, taking his last breaths. The monster that had been raging inside my mind instantly disappeared, leaving me broken and empty, with a dying man in my hands. I got rid of the flames immediately, lowering the Eraser and dropping beside him.

I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but the Eraser – who had changed back to a strangely human form – beat me to it. 'They took me when I turned fifteen. It was to see if the Erasers would last longer if they were formed during puberty. It wasn't a success.' I was crying at this point, my hands trembling as I tried to hold my tears in. 'Don't blame yourself, I was dying already. Give them hell from me.'

I turned to the open door, which was just waiting for me to charge through it, and back at the dying Eraser that had been a good person at some point. 'Go...' He gasped and pointed a half morphed paw/hand at the empty hallway. 'Before they catch you.'

I took one long desperate look back and then summoned the fire, making it climb up and around my arms. A quick glance around showed no one so I sprinted down the halls, trying to find and exit and then the way to "building four", wherever that was. I was just about to give up and smash a damn window when I found an emergency fire exit. _Perfect._ I opened it as carefully as someone who handles a bomb, terrified it would set off an alarm or something worse than that. If I got caught, I was officially screwed. And that might mean Collin was screwed.

I burst through the doors, uplifted by the fact that the alarm hadn't immediately alerted my escape. And then promptly backpedalled, hoping no one had seen me. Yeah right, it was so typical of my life. I just _had_ to run into the middle of a mass Eraser training session. The bad Erasers. Two hundred or so bright red eyes immediately turned my direction and zoomed in on me. They stopped everything they were doing and started to come towards me, fast. I slammed the doors shut and went to run like _freaking hell_ back to the empty corridors, but before I even got three steps I was pulled sharply back and thrown into the thick of the rank smelling beasts.

_No you don't! Time to be difficult!_ I let my power loose, sending random bursts of power everywhere, trying to keep the advancing pack of Erasers from getting too close. It didn't work that well, looking back on it. You know what they say: _hindsight is 20/20_.

My attempts only kept them back for a few minutes; soon they were all over me, biting, kicking, and breaking bones... Just being plain nasty. I fought back and quite a few of them fell back with pain-filled cries. I could hear people running out from various building and the Erasers being pulled off me, but I continued to send flashes of purple energy at every direction. I took a particularly hard hit at one point and, somehow, my vision was pointed up at the window of one of the buildings.

I saw him, looking down on me. His dark hair was swept across his face, his expression blank, his face showing bloody cuts and bruises. His hand placed on the window, as if he was about to smash the window and fly down. I thought he saw me too, and I was about to do something, _anything_ to show him I was there. But then he turned away. _It can't be him._ But they walked away from me once; he could probably do it again, easily. I was just holding tightly onto the hope that it was all a huge misunderstanding and that they would come back and save me. I was just being childish, I needed to forget them, they weren't coming back. Ever.

My mind forced me to see the logic in the situation. I knew my Flock. I knew it was Fang, I _knew_ he saw me. But he walked away... He left me. He betrayed me a second time. _Strike two_. Three strikes and I would be out. For good.

I lost concentration at that point and they started to overwhelm me. I still fought back, though, determined to stay strong till the very end. My anger and pain fuelled my strength and I imagined every Eraser that I hit was one of the Flock. It worked and my energy flames got larger and more powerful as I remembered his retreating back. Always walking away.

All good things must come to an end, though. I shrieked as they caught me from behind and shoved into me into a tiny metal crate, with no windows or anything so I was completely in darkness. I tried to put all my pain and agony into the scream the erupted from my mouth, and it made a haunting sound as it echoed around the torture facility. My scream split the silence like a knife through butter, but I stopped abruptly as my cage was overturned and my head was whacked against the side. _I hate the dark_. I was running out of energy, feeling my wounds start aching for the first time since I got them.

I lay in the darkness for a long time and when they finally opened the door, I cringed back from the piercing light. I was tipped unmercifully out, though, and I tumbled onto the cold floor. The door was slammed behind me and I looked slowly up, moaning at the pain that was consuming my entire body. The sight that I saw made me forget all my injuries and pain, though. I was focused on one thing only.

'_Collin_!'

**So... Love it, hate it? I tried to make this an exciting and emotional chapter, so tell me how I did.  
Also, drop me a line on what you want to have happened to Collin. Do you want him to be turned into some hybrid? If so, what kind? Do you want him to be really injured? Is so, by what? Basically, if you want a say, just review or PM me and I'll pick the best suggestion, or the one that fits the most into the story line!**

**Thanks to the following for reviewing the last two chapters:  
**MaxRide05 **x2**  
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MaxandFang101  
**You guys make me happy! I hope I haven't forgotten anyone now!**

**I'm also on a break from school for a few (wonderful) days, so if I get a lot of reviews, I will post the next chapter early!**

**Peace out fanfictioners,  
addicted-2-oxygen**


	16. Chapter 16

Nudge POV:

'_Collin!' _I screamed his name as if my soul was ripping in two. And believe me, it felt exactly like that. The world was spinning crazily and my head had started to pound like a thousand elephants were jumping on it. My breaths were fast and still not drawing enough oxygen in. My smooth brown hands were outstretched as if I could rewind time, my whole body shaking like a leaf. I was getting tunnel vision and the screams that were echoing around the room were becoming fainter.

_Who's screaming...? _I opened my mouth to tell the person to be quiet because I was trying to think, when I realised my mouth was already open. Wait, _I_ was the one screaming. I had good reason to scream, though, in my defence.

The room was covered in white tiles and smears of what looked like blood decorated the walls. The blood, which was probably Collin's, looked so out of place and alien next to the perfect blank room. And lying on a single metal table was Collin, motionless. I fell to my knees with a choked cry and could only whimper at the sight of him.

He was completely still, with his clothes hanging off him, covered in blood. His head lolled off the back of the table, he was too tall to fit perfectly. There was something wrong though, horribly wrong. His blonde hair that normally fell around his face was streaked with brown. Wolf brown. His right hand was encased in some sort of metal contraption and it looked so... so _Robot-ish_ that I had to suck in a large breath, my eyes brimming with tears. They had made him into some sort of mashed-up experiment. It was all my fault.

He looked as if the whitecoats had just picked a bunch of random things and shoved them all onto him. I suddenly understood, and promptly stopped breathing, my throat all closed up. He was their little plaything. _They weren't going to need him for anything; they were just playing around with him and using his body for their sick games. _

He was still completely lifeless on the table and I, fearing the worst, started to sob. My cries were loud and I curled into a ball, feeling the hot salty tears run down my face. A noise that sounded like a cross between a groan and a grunt caught my attention and I snapped my head up so fast, ignoring the sudden pain that erupted down my spine. Damn whip-lash.

I hardly dared to breathe as the figure of the table started to move and make noises. Noises that sounded distinctly Collin-ish. My hopes soared as Collin went to roll over and hit the floor with a thud, letting out curses that would have made a sailor blush. I was on my feet and running towards him in a second, my body complaining but my heart urging me on.

I dropped suddenly with a thud as my legs gave out on me, but was I dragging myself towards him on the floor as he looked at me. His eyes... They had changed drastically in colour from the brilliant blue that had captivated me from the first time I had seen him here, to a dark black. They made me freeze as his foreign gaze pinned me, his black coals of eyes penetrating my large brown ones.

'Stay away, Nudge. I'm not Collin anymore, I-I don't even know what I am. I could... I have no idea what I can do.' His words seemed to scare him, making him go a little paler. He was as white as a sheet now, the only colour in his face being his black eyes and the vibrant red liquid that was coming from a deep cut above his eye and running down his face.

'Collin...' My mouth spilled out the word and I regretted it as soon as it passed my lips, it made him flinch and clench his fists, as if he was afraid of himself. I trembled slightly as I slid myself across the floor towards him. 'I-I don't know what they did –_bastards_—but I do know something, you're still Collin. The same Collin who gave himself up for me, the only person I feel stand to look at without wanting to immediately kill, the same Collin who gave me this speech a while ago... The Collin who _saved_ me. I don't care about what you may have become or what you look like, I care about the Collin in here,' I pointed at his chest and he gave me a half-hearted smile, 'What I'm saying, is that we can deal with any creepy -or cool- powers you may have developed, later... But, right here, right now, it's just _us_.'

He looked right at me, seeing through all the pain and hurt, and something seemed to change within him. I scooted over to him slowly, my legs were just too beat up to work properly (I also had a feeling my ankle was broken or badly sprained), and slowly put my arms around him. He smelled like Collin, with a hint of rusty blood and the icky antiseptic smell that seemed to hang around this place. After a few moments of hesitation, he did the same to me, his strong arms locking around me and making me feel protected.

Good things only last so long, though. The door was opened after only a few blissful seconds of our embrace and I was dragged, kicking and screaming at the top of my lungs, out by an Eraser that smelled like wet dog and _evil_. Collin yelled after me, too weak to fight, a helpless look in his eyes. 'I'll come back, I swear! Just hold on!' As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I was clubbed over the head with the dog's paw and knocked unconscious. _Ah, crap..._

The darkness was lovely and painless, making me wish I could stay in it forever. It ended all too soon, though, and I woke to find myself in a room with the one man I vowed to kill. Jeb Batchelder. The second I realised who it was; I was straining at whatever was holding me down, desperate to get my hands around the man's throat. By instinct, I flared up my gorgeous purple energy and went to fling at right at his smug face... Only to be shocked with what sounded (and felt like) a taser. _Fantastic, this will make my day so much better. Damn people._

'What-Aaah!' I screamed as it connected with my skin and made me jump in surprise, but then I forced my scream back in and bit my lip. I was determined not to give in to their crazy games, which now included shocking a twelve-thirteen year old girl with _wings_ for their own sick pleasure. The gun-thing shocked me again and again, making my body jump involuntary off the chair that was holding me down. Three times, four, five... It just went on and on.

When it stopped at last, I was covered in sweat, my bottom lip was half torn off and I could taste the rusty tang of blood filling my mouth (I had been biting down on it so hard) and my head felt like it had its own pulse and was going to a different beat. It was a feeling I was all too familiar with.

'Now, Nudge, are you done yet?' The voice that cut through my pain was smug and made me want to punch something so hard my fists would come off. I _hated _the soulless monster that was Jeb Batchelder.

'Oh, I don't know, you're the one with the freaking _taser_! What the hell do you want Batchelder? I'm tired of these stupid games, just change Collin back to a human... _Now_.' My voice was made of steel and I was pretty proud of how scary and ass-kicking I sounded. _Sweet... _I tried to summon the energy again and even though I felt the awesome feeling that always came, there was no explosion of purple flames.

A quick inspection of my hands showed them encased in what looked like giant metal balls that were locked down into the chair that was just so dang _uncomfortable_. Someone should complain. I could see energy shining through the cracks and I started to hyperventilate as, no matter how hard I tried (and I tried pretty damn hard); I couldn't throw the stuff in Jeb's face. I was also tied to the chair and surrounded by a circle of Erasers in human form. Jeez, they looked like the secret service or something, except more feral and dangerous.

'I see you noticed the hands restraints, they are impossible to break and flame, bullet, and just about everything proof. Good luck trying to get out of that,' I opened my mouth to yell at him and was about to try and knock that stupid smirk off his ugly face again, but I stopped when I saw another Eraser firing up a big electrical gun of some sort. _Better wait for a while before I unleash my wrath._

'About the screw-up, Collin, we only just improved him. Oh, did out scientists have fun with him – it's like modern art; no one really knows what the hell it is! Call it an upgrade if you wish, and now you have a new mutant-freak to be buddies with, instead of a human you'd end up killing. You're welcome. I only want to help you to reach your full potential and then- well, let's leave that for another time. Good day.' Jeb said all of this, an amused look in his eyes as I tried in vain to get free and do something as bad as Collin and I had endured, to him.

And with that, he walked out of the room. I struggled against the Erasers, shouting after him, 'Jeb, you little snake, you horrible man! Max is going to kill you when—' he stalked back into the room and gave me a stinging slap across the face, leaving a bright red handprint. 'Ouch, that hurt Jeb—'

'Don't _ever_ mention Max to me, you little freak! Take her to the punishment room, _immediately!_' The last part was directed at the Erasers who promptly hauled me off to the "Punishment Room". This turned out to be a large room filled with Erasers that beat me up and who enjoyed every last second of it. Don't you just _love_ my life?

Anyway, I was just about half dead when they finally tossed me back in with Collin. '_Nudge_!' He gasped as I fell into his arms, and started to cry. He went to wrap his arms around me but ended up hitting me in the back with a spiky thing on his metal-y hand. 'Crap! Sorry, Nudge, sorry!' He gushed out apologies as I winced. I suddenly looked up and treated him to one of my smiles – which didn't appear often, believe me.

'You know what, Collin? It's okay, everything will turn out okay... As long as I have you beside me.' We totally had a Hallmark-ish moment and for a few blissfully ignorant seconds, I actually believed my words. Then reality crashed down on me and I remembered my current situation. 'Dang metal yolks, stuck on my hands... I swear I'm going to _kill_ Jeb Batchelder one day, and I will _enjoy_ it, let me tell you that...' I muttered under my breath as I smashed the things on my hands into the wall over and over. They didn't even crack.

I kept up with it for a good while though, refusing to give up. I was not about to let them win.

'C'mon, people! Why can't I _ever_ get a break, like, just once?!' My voice was high and dangerously close to tears as I tried in vain to get my hands free for the third time that hour. Finally Collin pulled me gently towards him, with his _not_ metal hand thing, and I fell against him. 'I'm just tired,' at his raised eyebrows; I continued, 'Tired of my life, of these sucky restraints, of the scientists... Of everything! Ugh!'

He just held me, as I cried, rocking me back and forth. He was perfect for me, and I loved him like a friend. My _only_ friend. But did he feel differently about me? And if so, could I learn to feel the same way?

Max POV:

We snuck out the door of the conference room from hell, our sneakers (for once) silent against the lino floor. Our bag packs had been conveniently dumped in the corner of the room and, thankfully, we put them on. Out main objective was to find an emergency exit door and get the heck out of there_. Now to put that plan into action._ I was first, then Gazzy, Angel and Iggy, with Fang bringing up the rear. We were the perfect team, in sync and perfectly trained for anything. Yeah right, the in sync thing was bang on but we were basically winging it until we got into battle or an opportunity came where we could use our creepy gifts.

The corridors were weirdly quiet as we snuck through them, smashing any cameras we could find, we didn't need anyone seeing us. The silence pressed down on us, as heavy as an elephant and ten of his closest friends. But then, everything changed in the blink of an eye. The second Angel sniffed and drew in a low breath to sneeze, I knew we were goners.

In her defence, she tried to stop the sneeze and had just wiped her nose with her sleeve when her body convulsed and an almighty sneeze erupted out of nowhere. Angel tried to silence it the second it came, but it was in vain because the second she did that, the halls were filled with Erasers. 'Crap! Get ready guys!' I screamed and then there was a mini-war.

They dove on us, separating everyone; we were weaker and more vulnerable by ourselves. I couldn't see anything apart from the four Erasers that were on me. I tried desperately to get to the younger kids and Iggy who was still injured, but every time I knocked one down, five more popped up in its place. I swung my fist around and managed to get one full in the temple, making it cry out and stumble blindly around, taking a couple of others with it. _Well okay, that works for me_.

I pushed my way savagely towards the others and ignored the pains that were the consequences of barging to get through to your family in the middle of a battle that was taking place in a crowed corridor. When I got to Fang and finished off Angel's Eraser, I screamed, 'We gotta get out of here, now! Before some--'I was cut off by Gazzy falling against me, unconscious. _Crap_,'—one gets hurt!' I finished, trying to support the nine year old boy.

Iggy came to stand as guard in front of me and dealt with the oncoming Erasers as I checked the Gasman quickly. Good pulse, no immediate signs of spreading blood... Then I saw it, the bloody gash that was slowly staining his fluffy blonde hair a dark crimson. This was not good, terrible in fact. A closer inspection showed a large lump and the gash that was gushing blood. He probably just got knocked out and hit with something sharp, it wasn't majorly serious_ if_ we got out quick and fixed him up, but the kid was going to have one hellva headache when he woke up. Ouch.

Fang whirled around, searching for an exit. His eyes lit up suddenly as he nodded upwards at a skylight that_ looked_ big enough to fit a couple of mutant-freaks through. 'Perfect!' I hoisted Gazzy up in my arms and yelled for the others, motioning for Fang to go first. He jumped into the air and snapped out his wings, hitting a couple of Erasers and knocking them aside with his dark powerful wingspan. _Nice one, Fang_. He reached the skylight and, in one fluid motion, smashed the glass with his fist.

The sparkly shards of glass rained down, making everyone in the corridor shield their eyes. I took advantage of their weakness and, yelling co-ordinates to Iggy, burst out to the open sky with a limp Gaz in my arms. We looked like fallen angels as we soared high in the sky, blood dripping down to the ground that was swarming with other Erasers and whitecoats. Just as I was about to start barking orders and trying to find a place to land so we could catalogue injuries and deal with the serious ones (Gazzy and Iggy were the worst, by far), a bullet whizzed past my head, making me gasp and almost drop the young boy in my arms_. We have to get out now_.

We fly as fast as we could (which is pretty fast), trying to dodge the bullets that were making the air resemble a mine-field. Suddenly, all the shots stopped and there was silence. Before they could start again, we managed to get out of range with only a few casualties. _Why did they suddenly stop? They could have picked us off like sitting ducks..._ We landed in a deserted strip of land that was far enough away from the School that we wouldn't be seen, and close enough that we would be able to hear any disturbances.

We collapsed on the ground, and lay panting for a few seconds, all about to pass out. I hauled myself up (feeling like I was about to break into a billion pieces) and Iggy and I bandaged the Gasman's head wound, and his other wounds (that kid fights _hard_). While we were doing that, Fang was fixing up Angel and doing himself. When Fang and I were both done, we forced Iggy down and _made_ him let us look at his stomach.

It took ages, and for most of that time Iggy was cursing fluently with pain, but we finally managed to get all the horrible stuff out of his jagged laceration and firmly tie a massive bandage around him. Then, we devoured the last of our food supplies, saving some for the Gasman when he came 'round in a few hours, and Angel collapsed against me the minute she was done, completely worn out. Iggy tried to fight Fang and me for first watch, but I used my "leader voice" and basically ordered him to get some rest so he could heal.

Then it was just Fang and me. He tenderly wrapped up my battle wounds and I relaxed for the first time today. I leaned against him when he was done, and he wrapped an arm around me, resting his chin on my head. 'This day has been, like, one of the suckiest ones in a while,' My voice was low, but it seemed to travel a long way in the silent night. Fang just turned his eyes down towards me, showing me in a glance his agreement. 'I just—I wish things were different. That we weren't constantly on the run, being chased by God only knows what and all the other crap that seems to have a constant part in our lives.

'Max, look at me...' I obeyed Fang and my chocolate brown eyes met his deep black ones. Our heads moved closer, and within a short few seconds, we were kissing each other. I let all my emotions out in the kiss, and I could tell he did the same. It was so magical and perfect, and for once I didn't have to fight the urge to run. I stayed. Maybe things would start to look up, from now on. I would make sure of it.

Third Person POV:

Jeb Batchelder watched from the window of his office, on the highest floor of building three, with a sick pleasure in his eyes. He watched Max and her Flock fly away, bloody and a bit worse for wear, but alive. He shook his head, slightly amused, at their ignorance and stupidity. How could they really not be suspicious at how easily they got away?

Jeb had not planned for the Eraser ambush in the halls, which had been some fool's mistake. He had made sure that fool had been "taken care of". As for the shooting fiasco, he had radioed down to the supervisor in charge and gotten him to call off the Erasers _immediately_. He couldn't risk Max and the others getting too hurt. It was not good to have idiots running around the place, thinking they had control. He, Jeb, had the power. _All_ the power. He considered doing an evil laugh, but somehow, the idea just seemed slightly cheesy and a tad cliché.

He chuckled slightly at the situation and moved his binoculars (that were so strong and enhanced, he really would have been able to find a needle in a haystack) and zoomed in on a face that was watching from a window in another building. He almost laughed out loud when he realised who it was. Nudge.

Her face was pressed up against the triple glazed and specially enforced glass (that also had real metal bars on the outside), and her face was the perfect picture of betrayal and despair. Her face was streaked with tears and her eyes were fixated on the flying figures that were growing smaller and smaller. So the freak still had feelings for the other freaks? He suddenly had an amazing brainwave. He was going to use the stupid weakness for all it was worth.

He smiled a wicked smile and, making sure no one else was around, allowed himself a short evil cackle. This was going to be good...

**So... Love it? Hate it? Want more? Review and give me advice, corrections, suggestions, thoughts... Just REVIEW!  
I hope my attempt at writing a little FAX at the end was mildly acceptable... Tell me how I did!  
Let's try and get those reviews up and over 100... I honestly can't believe **_**my **_**story got over 10 reviews, let alone 90 something, to be honest!**

**Thanks to the following for reviewing the last chapter:  
**MEGGEM  
Nudge&Iggy fan girl!  
MaxRide05  
MaxandFang101  
Zoe625 **  
**BookFan a.k.a. GwenFan22  
max ride book lover  
Emilyf  
Constant-Rae-of-Sunshine  
nequam-tenshi  
**You guys really brighten my day!**

**I'll try and get the next chapter up by next weekend... But I need feedback people!**

**Addicted-2-oxygen ;) **


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey guys! This chapter is (officially) dedicated to my best friend in the whole entire world, HeartfeltAngel (a.k.a. Lindsay). She is the best writer I know (Go check out her profile and amazing stories!) and the best friend I could ever have :) I love ya, Monoka!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or any of the Flock... But Collin is**_** all**_** mine!**

Nudge POV:

I lay, looking out the window at the starry night, with Collin asleep by my side. He was snoring, loudly. I didn't mind, though, it was a reminder that he was still alive. I got scared sometimes, that he would die as a side-effect of whatever they pumped into him, when they were "improving" him. We tested his powers yesterday. Well, whatever powers he can display in a tiny room with an avian-American life-form who has giant ball restraints on her hands, to keep her from using _her _awesome power.

He could smash just about anything with that metal fist of his (we tried the wall, but got quickly restrained and beaten... Maybe tomorrow), he can run at the same pace as an Eraser... That's all we found out in the short space of time we tried, but there is probably more, knowing my luck.

I studied the metal restraints that were enclosing my hands. Those were _really _annoying me, I couldn't even brush back a strand of hair from my face without hitting myself in the face (I already had two black eyes and a couple of bruises). As my mind wandered, it passed over the Flock.

_The Flock. They betrayed me. Left me here in this hell-hole. Even after Fang looked right into my eyes, they still flew away. _My temper flared and I smashed the metal ball that went around my hand angrily against the floor. _Why, why, WHY?!_

In the stifling silence and consuming darkness, my pain and loss was magnified by thousands. I normally had Collin around to calm me down when I got out-of-control mad, but he was sleeping and I didn't want to wake him. I screamed silently as my heart constricted and was consumed by a different kind of pain. Pain mixed with uncontrollable anger, the kind of pain I had had the day I discovered my purple energy power. _What was happening?_

The pain was so intense that it had me curled up in a ball, writhing on the floor as I died inside. My head was pulsating to a different beat, and it felt like my hands were on fire. The purple light shining through the cracks in the metal ball –things was blinding, and I had to look away. I felt like I was being torn apart from the inside, and let me tell you, that is _not_ an okay feeling.

Suddenly, the pain shot up to a whole new level, and I snapped my eyes open as all the hurt and loss was directed to my hands. The metal restraints burst apart, shattering into hundreds of shiny pieces. I screamed loudly (for the first time) as a glance down at my hands showed my purple energy balls... but they were surrounded by bits of silvery scraps, that orbited around my hands like planets around the sun. I felt elated, and full of power. Power I could use to my advantage.

By this time, Collin was scrambling to his feet, his mind still lost in sleep-land. 'Nudge! I heard a—_Nudge_... What the...' He stopped, amazed, staring at my hands that looked like something from a science fiction movie. Go figure, my _whole life_ was practically a science-fiction movie. I grinned a dangerous grin, and turned to the metal table that still stood in the corner. _Time to test this power out..._

I grasped the sides in my hands and moved my hands as if I was going to tear the thick table in half. The metal did as my hands commanded, as easy as tearing paper and I spun to face Collin, with two halves of a table in my hands. He went to say something, but closed his mouth, shaking his head. 'Only you, Nudge, would develop a power like that. You rock so much!'

I winked at him, and turned to the shattered remains of the stupid metal balls, reaching my hands out for them, as if I could draw them to me. It worked, and the pieces flew at me, at an alarming pace. I, fearing my face was going to be mutated, flung my hands down and prepared for impact. Nothing happened. The metal bits dropped to the round as soon as I stopped wanting them and I gave a cry of joy. I was, kinda, magnetic!

'Let's bounce, Collin. This place is getting old.' My face glowed with happiness and uncontrollable joy as I realised what we could do now; _we could get away_. Collin, using his metal fist, smashed the triple-glazed window with ease and stood back to let me do my thing. I casually broke the re-enforced thick metal bars as easily as if I was snapping a toothpick. _I am good..._

Erasers were starting to flow into the room, but with a flick of my wrist, all the metal objects, with an added boost from my energy, flew at them. The first few rows were thrown violently back, taking the rest with them. It was pretty hilarious. I laughed, a dangerous powerful laugh, and leapt onto the windowsill, motioning for Collin to follow. I grabbed him under the arms and jumped into the dark night. We free-fell for a storeys, smirking at the astonished faces at the various windows, all frozen in shock.

I spotted Jeb's face in one of them and, trying to support Collin in one hand, sent vicious flames of purple energy mixed with shards of deadly metal in his direction. I had the satisfaction of watching him run in fear and the window shattering. _Now that's what I call aim..._ it was like déjà-vu, we were attempting to escape the School, and there were creepy Erasers underneath us with huge guns (and I'm not talking about muscles, people... Though, they probably had those too) for the second time in, what was it, like just over a week.

I knew I should be scared out of my mind, with all the Erasers armed heavily and the electric fence with God only knows what other defensive tactics ahead, but all I could focus on was one thing: _We were going to get out of here, or die trying..._

I dodged the bullets as best as I could, Collin shouting words of encouragement and advice as I tried desperately not to get us killed. The electric fence was looming ahead of us, and I could see it sparking from here. _Here goes nothing... _I soared upwards, my wings aching in protest, but my heart screaming out in joy and fear: We weren't going to make it! The fence got caught in lower part of my legs and I cried out in pain, trying to get free, as we_ just_ made it over.

I kept going, my legs and ankles burning as if a fire was lighting underneath them. Collin was shouting and yelling himself hoarse from happiness, and I was yelling back at him, finally realising we were _free_. I landed a bit away from the School, about to throw up from pain and exhaustion, my eyes slipping closed as Collin enveloped me in a massive bear-hug. 'We did it, Nudge! Well, _you _did it, but we're FREE! We can-' He gushed on and on, me getting more exhausted by the second, my purple flames that had been out-lining my hands, finally fading away.

Then Collin realised something was wrong. He shut up immediately, dropping to my side and checking me everywhere for injuries. I tried to push him away, but Collin was too strong and I was too weak. He got to my lower half, and let out a stream of curses, stripping off his shirt in a hurry to get bandages. 'Go away, Collin, I'm fine. I just—'

'_Nudge_! Just stop for a second, and focus on developing a freaking sense of _self-preservation_, for goodness sake! You are so stupid sometimes, why the _hell_ didn't you say something! Hold still while I do this...' Collin cut me off, his face suddenly pale and worried. He tugged at something on my legs, making me scream at the pain that flared up, his movements fast and panicked. 'Sorry! Sorry, sorry... Two more minutes, 'kay, Nudge?'

I thrashed and screamed involuntarily, as Collin wrapped up my legs and tried to distract me, 'So Nudge, did you –stop wriggling-, did you see the game last night?' I giggled, and then immediately screamed in agony, as he made hideous attempts to take my attention away from the burning sensations in my legs. When he was done, my body still crying out with pain, I snuggled up next to him.

My legs were wrapped in strips of dirty white bandages, blood staining through the material. 'I'm sorry I hurt you,' He whispered gently, 'and I'm about to do it again, we need to get to a town or something, and get proper supplies.' He gently hoisted me into his arms, apologising profusely as I gritted my teeth in pain. He started to run, another of his cool powers –he could run as fast as an Eraser, minus the hairiness--, cradling me against his body.

'Collin... I'm going to miss you.' I felt all choked up with tears, and my emotions were going hay-wire._ This is so not me, what the hell happened to the whole no-show-emotions thing?!_

'What? Where am I going?'

'Back to your family, where you belong.' My voice broke at the end, and I clutched his chest, sobbing my heart out. I didn't want him to leave me, like everyone else in my life had. I _needed_ him.

'I'm not going anywhere, unless you're there, or you don't want me anymore. _You_ are my family now, I can't go back to my parents and sister, I'm—I'm_ different_ now. As longs as you're with me, I'll be fine,' He stopped suddenly, looking down on me, 'Where will we go now? You pick...'

I racked my half asleep and food-deprived brain to come up with a place. Someplace where no one would take any notice of a couple of freaks like us. Someplace where we could just relax and re-group. Someplace where—_I've got it!_ 'Let's go to New York, the lights are _sooo _pretty...'

Just as I was closing my eyes, I heard a chuckle from Collin, 'New York, here we come!'

Iggy POV:

_Flying... flying over an electric fence, some weight in my hands. All I was focused on was the fence. We weren't going to make it. We were going to die, at last. If I could just get a little bit higher. Up, up, UP! We made it! I felt the top of the fence get tangled in my legs, burning me alive. No! I kick it away, trying to keep flying, I can do this. I get to--_

I woke up, in the middle of the night, smacking my head against the low roof in the hotel we were staying in. I yelled (and maybe cursed a little) and went to roll over, falling off the bed, onto Fang. I heard him curse as he woke with me on top of him, but I was more focused on other things. Like the fact that my legs were _on fire_.

'Aaaagh! Fang, the fire! The fire! Make it _freaking stop!_' I thrashed around in panic, feeling Fang's rough hands pulling at me to show him what was wrong. I rolled around the small room, knocking into everything and making a general racket. Finally the pain started to fade, and I gave into Fang, cursing fluently.

He forced me down on the floor and, half sitting on me, switched on the lights. I gasped and moaned in agony, 'It's so _damn_ sore, Fang, who started a fire in my bed?!' I pulled up off the duvet that I was tangled up in, and I heard Fang make a weird sound when he saw my legs for the first time. '_What?!_ What the_ freak_ happened to me?'

'Nothing,' He sounded weird and I raised my eyebrows, I could still feel my legs throbbing in pain, 'Like, there is nothing on your legs, no burn marks or anything...' I kicked away from him and ran my hands up and down my calves. Sparks of pain exploded within me, making my wince in agony, but there was nothing on my legs.

I stood angrily, ignoring the intense pain that still threatened to overcome me, and fell back into bed. Pulling the damn duvet over me, I made a slight noise of pain, trying (and failing) to cover it with a cough as I buried myself within the blankets. 'You sure you okay, Ig? Do you want to talk about whatever just happened?' Fang's voice was concerned and it made me want to punch myself. I was so _stupid_, it was just a dream and it didn't mean anything. Nothing at all.

Yeah right, I was lying to myself. The dream had hit me hard, so hard I could burst into tears (_manly_ tears, mind you!) in a second, but I was never going to admit that to Fang. Or anyone else, for that matter. 'No. Just forget everything that happened, or... or I'll tell Max you love her.'

'Whatever, man.'

We stayed in the hotel for a couple hours (long enough to eat the equivalent of five human's breakfasts. Each), and then we were gone. We hit the air, heading for Dr. M's, but when we were almost there, Max had a brain-attack. At least that's what I assumed when she started screaming hysterically as I could hear her falling past me. I grabbed blindly out for her, but just as I grasped her arm, a spasm of pain rippled through me as well.

I yelled out, more in surprise than anything, and started falling. Thankfully I was able to stop before I went _**splat **_but I hovered for a few minutes, twitching in pain. My arms felt like they were being ripped out of their sockets, and my head was pounding. But my arms were by my sides, not moving. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong. It felt like my emotions and feelings were being controlled and _I did not like it one bit_.

Fang caught Max and soared back up to us, an unconscious Max his arms. At this point, I was shuddering involuntarily and my eyes were snapping open and shut. I went to fly to where I could hear him, but dropped suddenly, managing to get myself back up before anyone could say anything. Apparently, they hadn't noticed as they were busy making arrangements to land and tend to Max.

As we dove down towards the ground, I lost control again, suddenly having no control whatsoever and just falling wildly. I panicked and tried to angle myself so I wouldn't smash onto my face, but I misjudged where the ground was and ended up with a mouth full of dirt, and a bruised face. Ouch.

'Iggy! Stop playing around and get over here... _Now_!' Fang yelled and I scowled, stumbling awkwardly towards his voice. So they hadn't seen that whole no-control thing, or the spasms of agony? Well, it just shows how much attention gets paid to the _blind_ guy. I wasn't being bitter about my blindness, just a little hurt that everyone didn't notice the major thing (whatever it was) that just happened to me.

I collapsed halfway there, my spine doing what felt like the Mexican Wave, and my neck rolling around on my shoulders like some kind of demented doll. _What's happening to me?_ I dragged myself over to the others (still twitching with some kind of unknown pain), about to start making up an explanation for my little display back there for when I was bombarded with questions and worries, but the second I reached them, Max woke up.

She sat up, her movements sounding groggy and as if she's just gotten drunk and had a bad hangover, her breath coming out in small pants. Fang was all over her, his voice majorly concerned and just plain soppy. _Really, Fang, I expected more from you..._ I hung back from the hug-fest that started to take place, not wanting them to know about my random loss of control**. (A/N: Sorry, I can't figure out how to get rid of that line down there! Grrr!)**

Soon we were back in the air, me praying I would be able to fly normally. I was thankfully able to fly almost properly, with the odd twitch or slackening of muscles that caused me to drop for a few metres, but how long would it last? What would happen if we in the middle of a fight and I just dropped, spasm-ing for weird reasons? That's when I concluded I was officially screwed if I didn't tell someone.

Just as I was about to blurt my "secret" out, Max spoke up, 'Guys... I didn't think we should go to Mom's,' she cleared her throat hastily before continuing, 'I just—I don't want to put her and Ella in danger, like, if they come looking for us again. It just wouldn't be fair....'

Silence. 'But... Where will we go, if we don't go back? We were going to visit some memorial in school for our field-trip, in a few weeks.' Angel's voice was small and scared, making her sound more like a seven-year-old than she normally did.

'New York.' My mouth blurted out the words without my permission, as if a hidden force inside me was dictating what I said.

'Well... okay, that was random. Why do you want to go to New York, Iggy?'

'New York.' I repeated, wishing my mouth would just shut up. My face was starting to burn with embarrassment, my mind screaming at my mouth to _Shut up! Shut up!_

'Ummm... sure then. New York, here we come!'

Third person POV:

Jeb Batchelder stared at the computer screen in disbelief. Maximum and her flock were heading to New York, as well as Nudge and that little misfit that had escaped with her. It could put his whole plan into jeopardy if the two parties met. He frowned, cursing his luck. _Unless..._

Maybe he could make this work. It would take some planning and could set the whole process back a whole year, but the results could turn out better for him. Much better... A beeping on another screen wretched him from his thoughts and he turned to the screen, and promptly panicked. This wasn't good, at all. Experiment 1gg1 **(A/N: Iggy)** was experiencing malfunctions that could turn out to be deadly.

It could either be caused by a hacker into the freak's system, or... Jeb didn't even want to consider the other possibility. He quickly radioed for a few teams of Erasers to be prepared, and stood, getting into his leather jacket and grabbing bits of equipment. If he didn't get whatever Experiment 1gg1 was experiencing under control, the whole project would fail. And Jeb didn't like to fail...

Dr. Batchelder got into the chopper that was waiting for him, the Eraser teams standing by in various areas of New York and the surrounding states. _Nothing_ could afford to go wrong. He chuckled slightly to himself, in spite of the situation. There was no way they would be able to get out of this one.

'New York, here_ I_ come!'

**Well, I hope that was okay for you guys! Please review and tell me your thoughts, things you want to see happen, more FAX... Whatever you liked or want to see more of!**

**Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed over the course of these 16 chapters – we made it to 100+ reviews! Thanks to everyone who clicked the review button, and I can't wait till you click it again!**

**Thanks to the following for reviewing:  
**dreamsarefordaytime  
Howdy y'all!  
max ride book lover  
Vive Coldplay  
MEGGEM  
BookFan22 a.k.a. GwenFan22  
nequam-tenshi  
MaxandFang101  
HeartfeltAngel  
MaxRide05  
**You guys seriously make my day whenever I get reviews!**

**Oh yeah, it's my birthday this Thursday (HeartfeltAngel wrote me an awesome one-shot, featuring me and Iggy! Check it out!) and I'll try and get the chapter up next Sunday, but I might be busy!**

**Review, all ye fanfiction-ers!**

**Peace out,  
addicted-2-oxygen :)**


	18. Chapter 18

**Okay, everyone, so here's the really late (sorry sorry sorry) chapter! Hope you like it!**

Nudge POV:

It was just how I remembered it: The lights, the people who didn't give you a second glance, the sheer enormity of it all. It was perfect for us. We could walk around the city for years and never see the same person twice. The first night we got into the actual city, we collapsed in an abandoned building. Painful memories came flooding back to me, of the short time I spent here with the Flock, but I forced them down and put on a big smile for Collin. Who was snoring like there was no tomorrow. Boys...

The next morning, we were chased out of the building by angry homeless people, who apparently 'owned' the building we were sleep in. They had some heavy weapons, so, we sprinted the _hell_ outta there, only stopping when we reached the safety of one of the heavily crowded streets. We were pushed, shoved, crushed, squished... you name it, someone did it! When Collin finally managed to drag me into a shop, that was equally as packed, we ducked our heads and headed to a secluded area.

The back was relatively secluded and we crouched down to talk, me not realising it was the lingerie section, 'So, Collin, where will we—Hey! Get your hands away from that! Listen!' I hissed at him, disgusted as he reached out to touch... well, he tried to touch something that was hanging up something, okay? I slapped his hand away, and firmly turned his chin towards me. 'Collin, we have to_ focus_.'

'Sorry, Nudge! I got... distracted by...' He trailed off, his eyes drifting away from mine again. I sighed and pulled him away by the ear, heading for the racks of coats. I yanked him down, hidden behind the elaborate fur coats (they were fake, I swear!) and slapped him across the face. 'Okay, so I guess I deserved that one,' He grinned cheekily, making my heart melts. _Wait, what did I just think?!_

'You're good. So, should we head for the suburbs, or stay in the city? I think the city; it's easier to be inconspicuous...'

'Hmmm, yeah, the city's cool. Whatever you think, captain!' He did that quirky thing with his mouth again, and his now-black eyes seemed to twinkle like black onyxes. For the first time since we escaped, I really noticed his floppy hair that was just the perfect colour (pale blonde streaked with a chocolaty brown), and that I was drawn to him, like a moth to a bright light. We were lost in each other's eyes, our hormones going so crazy that they were practically on drugs. I leaned in against my will, feeling that something was wrong, that I shouldn't be kissing Collin. _Iggy, Iggy, Iggy,_ my heart chanted, while my head screamed _Collin, Collin, Collin_. Closer and closer we got, me cursing my spilt personalities all the way, and just as our mouth were about to touch—

The coats that were hiding us were ripped apart, and I whipped around, expecting bloodthirsty Erasers ready to kill us. It was a girl. A teenager, around our age, with bags hanging from her hands and a shocked look on her face. I froze, feeling Collin tense up beside me. She stared at us, and we stared right back at her. This random teenage girl was the first person we had properly seen face to face since escaping the School (bar the homeless people). The silence was proof of her (and our) surprise and, as she goggled at us, her mouth a perfect fly-trap, I took the opportunity to study the girl.

The girl was beautiful, with a perfect figure and big eyes. She was wearing a necklace and matching bracelet and had sparkling diamond earrings. Her layered brown hair fell in waves around her face, and she was wearing glasses that really magnified her gorgeous blue-grey eyes that had just the right amount of mascara and eyeliner. Her make-up was perfect, without a smudge or mess-up in sight, not plastered to her face, but just simple. The mystery girl's clothes were amazingly fashionable and suited her perfectly, like she was born to wear tight tops that magnified her perfect body and skinny jeans that showed off her brilliant legs. The girl also had a cute skirt that was on over the jeans which gave the whole look a really good effect. She had loads of shopping bags in her hands and she was currently blinking her wide eyes a number of times, looking like she had just seen a ghost. Or two runaway mutants. Depends how you look at things.

I looked up at her, tucking my hair behind my ear and hearing her hiss of shock when she saw my jagged scar. Yeah, the one that occupies half my _damn_ face. 'Jesus Christ,' she muttered, her eyes looking tortured. She looked away quickly, embarrassed.

In a nutshell, this girl was perfect. She was everything I wished_ I_ could be. I started to feel my eyes well up with tears at the thought of the life I could have had if the damn scientists hadn't decided to play 'God' with me, and I felt Collin nudge me, concerned. I sniffed a couple of times and wiped my nose with my dirty sleeve, I felt so inferior next to her with her gorgeous _clean_ clothes and beautiful hair. She wordlessly reached into her bag and passed me a clean tissue from one of those little packets I've never owned. Or felt the need to own.

I took it, like a person might handle a bomb, and carefully blew my nose and wiped _most_ of the dirt off my face. 'So... I'm, um, Lindsay and, uh... sorry if I was, um, interrupting anything important. Are you guys okay, though? You look like, well, crap.' She was blunt and straight to the point, her pretty face scrunched up in concern that just made me hate her more. We didn't need some stupid human snooping around us; we were fine on our own. Besides, there was something weird about her... I couldn't put my finger on it.

I went to duck away so I could cry my eyes out and rant about some stupid human who _totally_ ruined our moment, but Collin started to talk to her, making sure to keep his metal-ish hand out of sight, 'Yeah, we're fine, just kinda lost. We got, uh, mugged, that's how we got all those cuts and bruises, and now we don't have any money... I'm Col—Conor, and this is Nud – uh, I mean...'

'Monique,' I cut in smoothly, finally having gotten my damn emotions under control, being around humans (and Collin!) was slowly cracking my stone cold exterior I had built up over the past year and a bit. Soon I would be the old, weak Nudge. I couldn't let that happen. _Ever_. 'Sorry about that, I'm good now.' I tried to smile brightly at her, but it probably came out more like a grimace. Lindsay gave me a funny look before hesitantly smiling back. Dang, I have officially lost my people skills in the time I was in The School, during that year I spent alone with my freaking thoughts. _That's going to make fitting in with the humans a lot easier. Great, way to _be,_ Nudge..._

'Well, here's some money –I honestly feel terrible for interrupting your... well, whatever you were doing behind the coats- and, uh, I guess I'll leave if you want to continue... your, um, thing,' She pressed a wad of cash into my hand, shaking her head as I went to complain, 'No seriously, I'm real sorry for interrupting!' she ducked away, her bracelets jingling, and was gone before we had a chance to say anything else.

'Wait!' Collin yelled, starting after her, my mouth still frozen in surprise and my hand clenched involuntarily around the dollar bills she had handed us. I glanced down. Lindsay had given us over two hundred dollars. _What the--_

'Nudge! Nudge, she's gone. I can't see her anywhere, but look what was just around the corner...' He trailed off, opening a shopping bag; I recognised it from one of the many ones around Lindsay's hands. Inside, was two complete outfits, with jackets, shoes, jeans... everything. 'I even checked the sizes. They fit perfectly.' I was silent; it was like she had known we were coming. _But how?_

Rummaging through the bag, I found make-up bag (brand new), toiletries (for both of us), a bag for me, complete with a purse and more cash, a large hoodie for Collin (to hide his metal-ish hand), and lots of other necessary things to hide our mutant identities. 'This is impossible,' I found myself saying, 'How did she _know_?'

After ducking into the bathrooms and getting changed into 'our' new clothes, we looked at each other. The difference was kind of creepy. We looked_ completely_ different... perfect. I smiled, a genuine smile, as we bolted for the shop exit, ready to face the world now. The streets were still as jam-packed and crowded as they had been when we first landed (like, Jeesh, did this city_ ever_ sleep?!) and we struggled into Central Park, waiting for darkness.

Apparently, when night came to Central Park, it brought along weird people, some of whom were just annoying after a while. We sat at the base of a giant tree, waiting in amusement for the next drunk or teenager to stumble up to us. The funniest was the teenager who looked like he belonged in some kind of punk-rocker band, what with all his studs and chains. He swaggered up to us, looking all cool in from of his mates, crouched down in front of us amused mutants and (this was the not-cool part) planted a big kiss on my lips.

In about a second, he was up against the tree, his arm twisted in the perfect place to break it. Collin's face was murderous as he flexed his metal hand, ready to punch the guy's lights out. Permanently. 'Aaaagh! Dude, calm down... I'm sorry!' The youth whimpered, practically crying with fear. I leaned against the tree trunk, chewing gum, my eyebrows raised.

'Don't. Apologize. To. _Me_.' Collin's voice was ice-cold and dangerous, his eyes full of fire.

'I'm sorry, girl! Get your boyfriend off me. Please don't kill me!'

_Wait... boyfriend?!_

Max POV:

We managed to make it all the way to New York in one long flight. The city was blazing with lights in the dark night, and I felt like a tiny moth, flying towards the bright lights... Hopefully I wasn't flying to my death. We touched down in Central Park, all tired and irritable.

I turned to ask Iggy what we were supposed to do; it was him that had wanted to come here, and to make sure he was okay. He had been unusually quiet for the whole flight, and had hung out at the back for a change, instead of up with Gazzy and Nudge. He was several metres away and I opened my mouth to yell for him, about to start firing questions at him, when he twitched a couple of times. I raised an eyebrow, it was weird.

Then again. And again. His forehead was creased in pain, his eyes worried and oblivious to my own questioning ones. I went to get Fang, but out of the corner of my sharp eyes, I saw Iggy start jerking, and fall. By the time I reached him; he was full out spasm-ing on the ground, his eyes rolling crazily in his head.

I couldn't help it. I screamed. The rest of the Flock turned around and saw us. They screamed. Iggy, still convulsing on the ground, screamed, in pain. We were frozen in shock. I was reliving _that night_ with Nudge. My chest seized up, and I could only watch in horror as Fang ran over and tried to get Iggy out of... whatever he was having. Fang's attempts included: slapping Ig's face, screaming at him to '_Snap out of it!_' and several other methods that didn't work. Finally, he just sat back, running his hands through his hair nervously. It was torture, watching someone you love go through what looked like hell on earth.

Then... it just stopped. His shuddering body slowed to a stop, and he rolled a couple of time, before coming to a complete halt under an oak tree. No one moved, all too scared it would start again. Silence. I inched a step closer to him, moving as if I was underwater. Another few steps, and I was nearly at him. When I reached him, I stretched out a wary hand, almost afraid to touch him.

I lay a tentative hand on his shoulder, and almost jumped a foot when he groaned. 'Iggy...?' I forced the words out from behind the lump in my throat. _Not Iggy, please, no someone else. Take me, if you're going to take anyone! _

'Uhhhh... What happened? Why does it feel like my head's 'bout to crack open like a freaking coconut?!'

'Why don't you tell us what happened, Iggy? What the _freak _was that, dude?' Fang's voice was strained with worry, his hands clenching and unclenching as he stood over Iggy's form like a dark angel. The kids were a few paces behind us, quivering with worry and fear. God, I was reliving that night all over again, I couldn't lose another Flock member. Not again. It nearly killed me the last time.

'I know what's up with blind dude...' A voice came out of nowhere, scaring the _hell_ out of us tense mutants. I whipped around, ready to fight, Iggy struggling to get up, Fang ready to fight beside him. Gazzy was already pushing his sister behind him, reaching into his pockets for bombs and I could see his whole little body tense up, ready to fight for his life.

A girl dropped lightly out of the tree we were under, causing Fang to swear under his breath with surprise, while Gaz and Angel let out squeaks of alarm. I growled, pushing to the front and getting all in the girl's face. She was a little smaller than me, clad in ridiculous clothes for fighting, with her hair perfectly done. But her eyes were full of fire and amusement as she silently mocked me, daring me to swing out at her. I threw a punch, to see how she would react, but she didn't flinch.

My fist connected with her cheek, leaving split skin and what was going to be a massive bruise. Any normal human would have been reeling back from the shock and force of that blow, but mystery-girl didn't flinch, her cool eyes glinting in the darkness. Fang was beside me in an instant, snarling down at her as he tried to push me behind him. 'I thought you wanted to know what's wrong with your friend, not beat me up... Not that you would be able to.' She said calmly, smirking at me as she breathed the last part.

Iggy was up, leaning heavily on the Gasman, but up all the same. 'Who_ are_ you?' He asked, his voice slightly breathless as he panted for air.

'That's for me to know and you to... well, it's just not important right now. Or ever.' She answered, neatly side-stepping Fang and me, making a clear path to the kids and Iggy. _No you don't!_ Before I could react (and tear her head off), Fang grasped her throat, and yanked her back. He held her slightly off the ground and I watched as her feet dangled, the designer shoes glittering in the dark night. This is why you don't go into Central Pak at night, kids. There could be some freaks in there, like us.

'What. Are. You. Talking. About.' I growled, my heart pounding with pressure and worry for Iggy, even though I didn't show it on my face. I was in full on battle/tense-moments-with-enemies mode. _Bring it on..._

'Weird... the other freaks were more welcoming and, just, generally nicer than you guys. Guess we can't use the saying "birds of a feather" in this situation... Damnit, I like that saying. Anyway, I won't tell you unless you put me down. _Right. Now._' She rambled, saying the last part in a deadly voice. I nodded to Fang who dropped her on the ground, where she landed lightly on her feet. 'Thank you. So... the blind dude, Iggy, well, his DNA is going crazy (don't ask me for a scientific-al explanation, 'cuz I really don't have a clue) at the moment and if you don't put it right (however you do _that_), he's going to die. And soon.'

The reaction from us was crazy. Angel flung herself on Iggy, her blue eyes welling up with tears (I could _so_ relate), Fang snarled and hoisted the girl up by her shirt again, Gazzy's whole body tensed and he suddenly flung a small object at a far away tree... which promptly burst into flames. I just froze, my face probably showing all my worry, anger and desperateness. This could not happen again. _Please no._

'Don't all look at me,' the girl said in a defensive tone when we all turned towards her again, 'I mean, Jesus Christ,_ I_ have no idea how you're going to fix him! For God's sake, just don't shoot the messenger.' She detangled herself from Fang's iron fists and started to back away. 'Don't follow me, by the way', She started to say as I went to go after her, 'It's nowhere nice I'm going... Trust me. Oh yeah, the name's Lindsay.'

Third Person POV: 

Jeb Batchelder's face was impassive as the teenage girl in front of him completed her report. When she had finished, he calmly shuffled a stack of papers on his desk, while she waited impatiently. 'Yes?' He inquired in a tight tone, as she tapped her foot.

'I want my friend back. _Now_. You promised, we had a deal,' She slammed her hands down on the table as he shook his head at her, in a patronizing way. '_You_ said, if I did your stupid dirty work, you'd give him back.'

'I don't remember such a deal...'

'C'mon! I had no other choices. Now, finish your part of your _damn deal_!' She screamed the last part, her voice high with fear and frustration. She hadn't wanted to track down the mutants, _really _hadn't wanted to tell one group that one of them was going to die. But she's had no choice. They took him. And she had to get him back.

Jeb, still smiling in that creepy way, slowly pressed the red button on his desk. Lindsay, realising what that meant, screamed. As the guards flooded the room, she kept her big eyes fixated on Jeb's cold grey ones. _No, no!_ She though as they grabbed her by her arms and started to pull her away. '_NO_!' They dragged her down the dark hallway, her screams echoing off the walls.

'Please _no_!' Jeb, hearing her screams, smiled faintly. Stupid naive girl. He radioed down to lab where she was being taken, to tell them _not to go too far. The girl could be useful in later times..._

_

**So that's it! I hope it wasn't too bad... And as for the **_**ridiculously **_**late update, everything was just against me these last couple of weeks, but I (finally) got this chapter up!**

**Oh yeah, the new character, Lindsay, is based on my best friend in real life, wait for it, Lindsay. I know she seems really bad and mean in this chapter but I will be developing her more as the story goes on.**

**Review? It makes me write faster :)**

**Happy March, all you awesome fanfiction-ers who take the time to read my story!  
Addicted-2-oxygen**


	19. Chapter 19

**I'm sorry for the ridiculously late update! I know I've probably lost all my readers, but a massive THANK YOU to those who are still reading this! I tried to make this chapter include lots of important stuff, and loads actually happens, and it's like 1,000 words longer than I'd normally do. Hope it's okay :)  
Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride... but Collin is all mine!**

Nudge POV:

I backed away from the teenager we had up against the tree, in a daze. Was that what Collin and I looked like? Like, a boyfriend and girlfriend? I wasn't ready for all of this. I mean, _me and Collin_? I just couldn't picture it. I supposed it made sense though; he was the only person I had gotten close to since... _The Flock_. The mere thought of them made me want to burst into tears, and smash something into a million pieces. Just like my heart when they left me. But then, when I thought of Ig-Iggy, I got confused. Like, majorly confused.

A familiar noise made me turn to look at Collin, who was smashing the guy's face in. In his defence, he_ totally_ deserved it.... so what if Collin got a _little_ protective? I watched as his (perfect) hair flopped into his (perfect) face, while he brought his (perfect) fist into the guy's face. Looking from an outsider's view, Collin was perfect in every way. But did that mean we should be, you know... together?

For that question, I simply had no answer.

'Collin...' I whispered softly, afraid if I spoke louder it would give away the cracks in my voice. He dropped the teen immediately, whirling around, and instinctively looking for danger. His eyes met mine and I jerked my head. _It's time to go._

He seemed to read my expression, which I tried to keep totally neutral, and glanced back down at the creep who kissed me against my will, and then at his friends who were cowering behind a tree in fear. _Stupid humans..._ 'Clean your friend up,' His voice was husky and in the perfect pitch to make my heart flutter. 'And, if you _**ever **_mess around with girls against their will again... _I will find out_.'

'So will I', I said in a dark tone, unfurling my beautiful wings for effect. 'And we _will _hunt you down.' One of them screamed like a little girl, while the other two scrambled backwards as I took a menacing step towards them. I snarled like an animal, and I swear they all wet their pants. _Classic. _Collin held out his arms, his metal hand glinting dangerously in the moonlight, and I grabbed them, lifting us up into the air. We hovered in the air for a couple of seconds, watching the teen and his friends run away screaming.

'And that's how you do that,' Collin smiled with satisfaction, looking dangerous in the moonlight. I shivered, not feeling the cold but my confused feelings, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. 'Oh, Nudge, are you cold? Sorry! Here take my jacket, its fine, really.' And, just like that, Collin shrugged out of his leather jacket and draped it over my thin shoulders... just like a proper boyfriend would. I gratefully took it, giving Collin a rare, quick smile, but the back of my mind niggled annoyingly. _What about Iggy? Iggy or Collin?_ _Collin or Iggy?_ _I really have no idea....Why is my life always so complicated?!_

'Thanks,' I decided to just go with the flow, and there was no point in letting myself get any colder, so I slipped into the warm leather and headed off in a random direction. Collin was right on my heels, and he slipped his hand into mine as we walked. I could feel his warm hand squeezing mine softly as I headed for a secluded are, away from the drunks and weirdo's. I felt light-headed, my eyes flickering oddly, but I foolishly mistook it for the fact that Collin was so close. My head pounded and I could feel every movement I made as if I was made of stone.

The night was silent, and the tree comfortable, as we settled down to sleep. I just had to ask one thing before Collin fell asleep, though. 'Collin,' he grunted in reply, half asleep. 'Why did you get so mad at that guy, when he kissed me? It wasn't_ that_ much of a big deal, and I could have handled it, you know...'

'I know, but... I mean—he shouldn't have done that, and I wanted to—I just didn't want to see you get hurt, Nudge. I really, uh, _like _you and I want to protect you.' He seemed to stumble over the _like_ part and I felt my defensiveness rise and cover my embarrassment.

'So you think I can't _handle_ myself?! Is that what you're trying to say? Because you know, better than anyone else, that I can manage perfectly well _on my own_,' I couldn't help it, I was exhausted but so angry I was ready to fight Collin. It felt like darkness was seeping in, into my brain, and making me act all weird and aggressive. I screamed internally, as my body started to move against my will.

Collin looked very taken aback, suddenly wide awake, and he raised his hands in defeat. 'What?! No, you don't understand, Nudge. I just was—you see...' I was advancing upon him, fire in my eyes but totally confused everywhere else._ What the hell am I _doing_? This is _Collin_, stupid_! But still, my body kept moving towards him, my hands curled up into lethal fists. 'Nudge, calm down. This isn't you... Im not sure what it is, but it's definatly not the Nudge I know,' His gaze was so innocent and earnest, his eyes searching mine so intently, that the fire that had been flaring up within me was snuffed out.

'I-I... sorry,' I swayed slightly, my head dazed and my mind confused. _What the heck just came over me?_ Collin rushed over and lowered me to the ground, his cool fingers finding my hot forehead with precision. I felt faint, like everything was pressing down on me and squishing the breath out of me. 'I... can't... breathe...' I choked out as my chest closed up and the dots started to invade my vision.

'Damnit... Nudge! Nudge!' He was calling my name, but it sounded so far away, like he was at the other end of a _really_ long tunnel. I tried to reassure him that I was fine, but all that came out were these pathetic little wheezes. _Great, so now I sound like a ninety-year-old man on top of everything!_ 'Help! Someone help!' Collin was yelling his head off now, _completely_ overreacting.

The tiny black dots were starting to blossom into massive black dots, clouding my vision. I shook my head wildly, with the last of my energy, trying to get rid of them, but it didn't work. I just got woozier and my eyes drooped. _Maybe he wasn't being stupidly overprotective after all... for once. _The sound of footsteps running made my head pound even more, and I vaguely wondered who was so concerned about two mutants on the run. Suddenly, Collin was ripped away from me, his scream echoing through my head.

I tried to jump up and fight, but I just... couldn't. I felt hands grabbing at me, as I twisted weakly, but it was all too much.

My last thought before I was lost to the darkness surprised me, even though I had been the one thinking it: _I really hope I don't die this time... I want to stay and be with Collin. I think._

Fang:

We were all frozen in shock, after watching the girl slink away into the night. First Nudge, now Iggy. They were picking us off like flies. I snarled, an inhuman sound in the darkness, and swung around to face the tall tree I had been leaning against. **Bam!** That was the sound of my fist slamming into the bark with perfect precision, splitting the skin on my knuckles, again and again.

When I felt like my headache was about to crack my head open, I stopped, turning to look at the rest of the Flock. Max was walking around in circles, muttering different scenarios to herself, trying to find a way to escape this nightmare. Gazzy was crouched beside Angel, his small hands moving impossible fast, connecting wires to different wires, finish bombs and starting on new ones. I think his way of dealing with extreme stress is either blowing things up or making things to blow other things up. Angel was simply staring at me, her deep blue eyes filled with sadness and knowledge far beyond her years, the old bear Celeste clutched in her right hand. I hadn't know she still had that scruffy thing, and it made my heart ache to think that she only took it out in times of pain. Iggy was lying flat on the grass, twitching slightly every few minutes, his blind eyes staring up at the sky that he couldn't see.

I sank down to the ground, hating the fact that I couldn't prevent this coming disaster. My hand, streaming with blood that looked black in the night, reached into my pocket and drew out a pencil. I toyed with it for a few minutes, finally pressing it into my skin, my face emotionless as it dug into me. The pain was good. But I had a reason for this, a stupid reason, but a reason. I drew a straight line, watching the pencil's dark outline appear on me, and slowly made out the symbol of a single wing.

I went over it a couple of times, watching with detached interest as the blood welled and started to drip to the grass, to make sure that it was well and truly there. Then, I turned and punched my fist into the tree, again, and saw with satisfaction that my bloody wing symbol had been transferred onto the bark. Max came over and raised her eyebrow at me, not bothering to use words to convey her confusion.

'It's to symbolise the way, wherever we are, our past always catches up to us. A wing to show our freedom, but the blood to symbolise how our lives are always constantly in danger. A bloody wing.' My voice came out husky and low, catching the attention of the others. They came over and we had a real Flock moment, just us and the night.

We stayed like that until, of course, there was a rustle in the bushes. Max's intake of breath was enough to make me instinctively push the others behind and get into a fighting stance. Things dropped from the trees like spiders, moving too fast for me to attack, and within seconds a needle had been plunged into my arm. I roared and struggled to get away, hearing Angel's and Gazzy's shout of surprise. 'Get. Off. Me. Or. _Die!_' I yelled, bucking them off.

I got to the Gasman before my legs started to give way under me. I yanked the needle out of my arm, seeing Gaz's look of horror as I started to fall. I fell to my knees, my arms beginning to go numb, a quick look showing I was the only one who had been injected with the sedative/drug. So far. Within seconds I was completely immobilised, unable to move. The Gasman was holding my hand tightly, and he screamed bloody murder as the moving figures ripped him away from me.

My eyes were starting to close against my will, and I fought to stay conscious. But the drug was too strong and the last thing I saw was Max's look of fear and concern (she hid the fear well) as they forced her into a metal cage.

This was _by far_ the worst trip to New York. Ever_. I think I'm going to have to complain to the New York tourist's office..._ Then the world melted away in a river of gushing blackness, and I was a goner.

The Gasman:

They had us. Again. The creeps just dropped from the trees and pounced on us. Then they injected Fang with some crazy stuff and he went down like a ton of bricks. No kidding, he landed on my feet... and he's damn heavy. We were all shoved into_ tiny_ cages, Fang lifeless in the one beside me, and loaded into some big truck with huge headlights. I think I saw another two cages in the back, with a boy in one cursing fluently to himself under his breath, but I could only see shadows in the one next to him.

'Report,' Max hissed, her voice deathly quiet.

'I think I'm okay... can't feel my left arm, though,' Iggy whispered back. His arm was hanging at an odd angle, so I guess he broke it. The other replies came back, with no one really that hurt. Except for Fang, of course.

'Gaz, is Fang next to you? Is he okay?' Came Max's worried voice in the silence that followed her report. I nodded a swift yes, noticing the weird things that had captured us starting to move back to towards us. I motioned for her to be quiet so they didn't hurt her, but she didn't see me, focused on Fang. 'Gazzy! Answer me.' Our captors kicked her cage savagely, making it tumble over and roll around the truck that was bouncing around because of the stupid road. I winced as her cage went flying into one of the wall, falling down with a horrible crunch that had to hurt even _Max_.

But she didn't make a sound, only glaring with her eyes, which glinted in the darkness like creepy glowing stones. I shifted slightly, freezing as they turned big blank yellow eyes at me, easing a small object out of my pocket slowly. My bomb. Well, one of them. But the biggest one by far. There was still some work to be done, so I started to connect various wires in the semi-darkness, feeling a small smile creep onto my face. I _love_ making things blow up.

Finishing the bomb took about the rest of the journey to wherever we were going, so I had something to keep me occupied. We were hauled out of the truck and placed on a transport cart that had a squeaky wheel.

I peered though the bars of my cage, feeling dread settle in the pit of my stomach as we approached tall buildings, which were in the middle of freaking nowhere. There were guards in the distance, looking half human, but there was something feral about their stances and general body language. Erasers. I gulped as I noticed a small training ring that was set apart from the buildings, a small figure running desperately from what looked like a huge wolf.

We were at the School. At least one of them. _Please no...anywhere but here..._

They rushed us down a load of hallways, turning the corners so fast my cage nearly tipped off. I tried to catch Max or anyone's eye, but they were all occupied with other things. As always.

I twisted around until I could see the other mystery boy that had been placed with us, and maybe the person that had been with him, but all I could see was his blondish dark crop of hair... and his lethal gaze that seemed to penetrate to my very soul_. Creepy_. The person that was with the boy seemed to be unconscious, slumped over, not moving. I stared at him/her for a few minutes, trying to detect some sort of breathing, but they stayed perfectly still.

'Max!_ Max_! That person's not breathing!' I whisper-yelled, feeling my heart beat a mile a minute. The boy reacted instantly; turning to state at her (I think it was a her...) with an intense expression, which then turned to blind panic. He shook the bars of his cage, looking more like a wild animal than a person at that moment, desperately trying to get someone's attention.

The rest of the Flock looked instantly, but it took longer for our captors to realise something was wrong. 'She's not breathing! You idiots, you_ killed_ her! _I'll kill you_! _I'll murder you all_!' The boy was rocking the whole cart, his entire body racking with a dangerous rage, his deep black eyes tormented and full of an unbelievable anger. He shook the bars of his cage with such force they almost snapped, reaching out his hand as far as it would go, trying to reach her. 'God-damnit! _No_!' He yelled, his strong voice cracking at the end, tears starting to well up as he looked desperately at the lump in the cage.

They finally realised something was wrong. The cage was hauled off the cart and the limp person inside it thrown on a gurney, rushed down the hallway. I stared after it, my whole chest aching. The boy was yelling again, yelling with uncontrollable loss that broke something inside of me. I began to sob, the hot tears rushing down my face like a waterfall. 'Gaz... Shhh, man, it's going to be okay. It's all going to be fine,' Iggy was trying to calm me, but it wasn't working. I didn't know why this random person's death was upsetting me so much, I didn't even _know_ her, but it triggered something inside me. Like a flick of a switch that had been long forgotten.

We were dumped in a blank room, the other whitecoats rushing off like the place was on fire or something. Max gathered me into a massive bear-hug, Iggy behind us checking out Fang, while Angel wrapped her arms around me. The boy was banging on the door, demanding to be let out, but there was something in his expression and body stance that showed he had given up.

I stood slowly, shaking off my weakness, and placed a hand on the guy's shoulder. He whirled around, a savage look on his face, and pushed away from me, pacing around the room. 'They killed her. What am I supposed to do without her? They grabbed her, away from me...' He muttered to himself, running his hands through his dishevelled hair.

'Dude, you okay?' Came Fang's low voice, slightly weaker than before, but there all the same. He must have woken up while I was cryi-- he just woke up, okay? I turned to look at him, relieved when I saw his tanned face looking back at me from his sitting position against the wall. He still looked kinda shaky, but you couldn't have told unless you had spent your whole life with him, and his face was slightly sweaty.

'Of course I'm not okay! They just killed her; they god-damn _killed_ her! Oh my God, what the hell am I going to do without her?! They- I... couldn't save her... failed... gone...' He trailed off, a wild look in his dark black eyes. 'No!' He cried again, throwing his body against the door, like he could break it down or something. The boy's fist slammed into the door, over and over, in a continuous rhythm. The rhythm of a desperate man.

I stood back, really looking at him for the first time, knowing there was nothing I could do. He was quite tall, lean muscles visible under him torn shirt, his blonde scruffy hair streaked with a familiar brown shade... an Eraser colour. Realisation kicked in, and I gasped, and scrambled further away, my past sending horrific flashbacks back at me that all included the particular shade of brown that seemed weirdly unique to Erasers. He turned around, looking at me with a tired confusion, while his hands clenched and unclenched into fists. My eye caught sight of his hand, my brow burrowing in confusion. His hand was... it was... _metal_, somehow, as if he had slipped a metal-looking glove on.

He saw me staring at his hand with a horrified interest, and he smirked slightly, a coldness visible in his eyes. 'Like it? You want one too? I got this one for free, luck me, huh? They even spliced my DNA with an Eraser's, and lots more fun stuff too!' He said with a fake cheerfulness that changed to a dead monotone. 'I was _normal, _like, just a regular kid. Until they got me, and turned me into this monster.' He turned away again, and continued to try and break down the door.

'Wait. You're friend might not be dead.' The boy had Max's shirt in his hands in seconds, his eyes searching hers wildly. She threw him off, Fang struggling to get up off the ground and Iggy already ready to help her if needed. But she was Max, so obviously she didn't need their help.

'Tell me!' The boy howled, sounding utterly defeated and desperate. 'You have to. _Please_!'

'Number one: Don't ever grab me like that. Ever. Or I _will_ kill you. Number two: They did seem really anxious to save your friend, so maybe they did. Save her, that is. I've seen them bring someone back to life after I- well, it's just some options to consider before you go all crazy,' I shuddered, remembering Ari, who had been killed by Max, brought back to life, and then killed again. It had been horrible (not to mention confusing).

Iggy, who had sunk back into a sitting position in the corner softly jerking every so often, suddenly opened his mouth and screamed. But it wasn't his scream that came out of his mouth, scaring the _hell_ out of us. It was one of a teenage girl, a real high pitched scream, which was full of utter agony. A scream that I knew. A scream that I had heard all my life, when spiders appeared in the bathroom, when the shower turned cold suddenly, when things were lost... It was-could it really be Nu-

Before the thought could fully manifest itself in my mind, Iggy had slumped over onto the floor and was making gasping fish noises, making us all rush towards him in terror. _Is this his time to... you know, go? _I tried to shake the thought out of my head, afraid that if I truly considered it, it would become real. We were all crowed around him now, yelling at the top of our voices, trying to do something useful and just basically screaming out heads off.

All the while, the boy with the metal hand stayed crouched in the corner, with a confused expression on his face as he listened to Iggy's screams intently. Which weren't really Iggy's screams at all.

He recognised them too.

Lindsay POV:

_Stupid, stupid, stupid_. I crouched in the corner of my cage, my head whipping around every few seconds as experiments moaned and screamed softly. _I'm not supposed to be here. I'm normal. Well, somewhat_.

My fists clenched as I thought of the traitor Jeb. Damn him. He scammed me, made me do his dirty work and then he shoved me in here to rot. I really hadn't wanted to tell those kids that one of them was going to die. It had _killed_ me on the inside. Well, I sure wasn't going to sit around here until they needed me again, or before I died. _I'm out_. I looked carefully at the lock that was keeping me confined to this damp and dirty hell hole.

I figured I could bust it open quite easily; it was only a matter of what to do once I'd gotten out of this damn cage. Maybe if I jumped the guard at the door, and then... break through the reinforced metal door? Could I even _do_ that? I guessed I would have to at least give it a shot; after all, it was all I'd got. On the count of three. One, two, three...

_Go!_ I quickly bashed the lock in and sprinted out into the corridor between the blocks of cages, the pitiful experiments crying out after me. I would be back to get them after I found him. Provided he was still sane. And alive. The Eraser thing that was standing at the door had a split second to look surprised and open his mouth, but I had silenced him within a matter of seconds. I was good. I left the freak unconscious on the floor, a stiletto heel stuck in his leg, he wasn't going anywhere for a while. I quickly took off my other shoe, ready to run.

A glance out the door showed an empty corridor with shadows lurking around the corner. I hesitated, but then dashed down the hall, afraid that if I actually thought about what I was doing, I would realise it was pure madness. But I was used to total craziness, so I figured a little more couldn't hurt.

I couldn't fail now, I had to find him. It could be my last chance.

Let's do this.

--

**So there it is... I tried to do the Gasman's POV, but I don't know if it worked or not. Please let me know if I should try and do more of him (and maybe an Angel POV?) or I just completely failed at it!**

**Anyways, I had like horrible writer's block for the past couple of weeks, so this chapter may be utter crap :$ If you guys have any suggestions or things you want to see, please either PM me or review!**

**I'll try and get the next chapter up quicker... But I need a little help!**

**addicted-2-oxygen :)**


	20. Chapter 20

Nudge POV: 

The darkness was like a bottomless pit of hell. It sucked me in, pulling me down like a horse caught in a lasso. I tried desperately to escape, to do anything, to do anything apart from get dragged down. The last thing I remembered was.... going all crazy on Collin at the park and then, a little kid screaming and Collin completely freaking out. _He needs to learn to chill..._

Wait! Collin. Where was he? Was he okay? Of course with those questions came my own, where was _I_? Was _I_ okay? But never mind about me, Collin is the issue now. I frantically racked my brains for some sort of answer. _Think back now, calmly. Okay_, I mentally took massive deep breaths, _Right, we have the park incident with the cruel arms dragging you away, the screaming child and freaked out Collin thing, and then... the darkness and loss of everything._

That led me to only two conclusions. One, I was on drugs. Two, I was at the School and experiencing some weird out-of-body experience.

Well, that was easy enough then. One was completely out because a) Collin would never let me take drugs (_stupid overprotective idiot_) and b) _I_ would never let me take drugs, it just wasn't... me. Damn, that only left the School option. _Damn_. I would rather swallow a _million _spiders than end up in that hell-hole again. I tenderly tried to move my wings. I couldn't feel anything.

Great. Perfect. Just freaking perfecto.

I needed to get out of here... wherever 'here' was. I opened my mouth and screamed. As I was screaming – although no sound was being produced – I got an image of Iggy. _Iggy._ God, I missed him. Wait, no I didn't. I didn't miss them, at all. I hated them... right? I should hate them. The Flock, I mean. They left me. I didn't want them.

I thrashed around, feeling my body move, but still trapped in the blackness. _Shi- shoot_. I screamed and yelled, begged out for help, howled for someone to save me. All the time I was desperately trying, I still kept seeing Iggy in the back of my head. What the hell was happening?

Suddenly, a burst of light exploded around my head. Pains spasmed through my chest, making me cry out in agony. More lights exploded around me and I felt myself being sucked backwards, like a vacuum was sucking me back. Hopefully back to reality. The world was spinning around me at the speed of light, confusing the heck out of me.

I sucked in a huge, rasping breath as reality caught back up with me, appearing in the form of an operating theatre, complete with around twenty whitecoats crowded nervously around me. I gasped for breath, not resisting as an oxygen mask was slapped cruelly onto my face with deliberate force. The air I breathed in was life-saving, and I took massive breaths, unable to get enough of the gas.

Finally I became aware of other tubes and wires attached to my arms and body. I tried to lift my arm to push the mask away, as the air was starting to be tainted by something else, when I realised my arms were pinned securely down to the table. The whitecoat nearest to me smirked at me as I started to panic. The gas I was now breathing in was making me woozy.

Not again... I struggled to stay awake as I was slowly being knocked out. My mind tried desperately to come up with a way to get out of the situation, my eyes darting around with worry as I could feel my eyelids drooping. The restraints were pressing into my wrist making too hard to concentrate and –

Wait! The restraints were made of thick metal... metal that I could work to my advantage. I sneaked a peak at the whitecoats. A few of them were crowded around what looked like a vial of blood, more gazing up at an x-ray of wings on a human's back. Oh shoot, they were probably my wings. The rest were checking the various machines attached to me, or studying charts with intense expressions.

I, still fighting the urge to close my eyes, tried to move the metal a small bit. It took a second, one that I could hardly afford to waste, but after what seemed like years it moved. It was only a small movement, I didn't have enough strength to do verymuch, but it was enough that the catch clicked open. Luckily, none of the scientists noticed it, and I set to work on the other ones.

When I had released all the catches so I was free to move if I wanted, I located the exit. It was in the form of a door, thankfully a little ajar, and I could make out a corridor bending to the right. That was my target. If I wanted to do this, it had to be done all at once and fast. Please don't let me kill myself. Again.

I wrenched my arms and legs out of the open metal bands, ripping off the mask, and making a beeline for the door. The scientists, taken off guard, jumped out of the way in surprise. I could feel the tubes, wires and other general hospital-y stuff that had been in my arms tearing away from my skin as I sprinted for freedom. But Collin first. Then fresh air.

The alarms started blaring the second I took three steps down the dark corridor. The red lights flashed around me as my bare feet pounded on the cheap lino. My hands erupted into purple energy and, even though it drained my strength by the second, I blasted doors open and Erasers off their feet. I raced down random corridors, yelling Collin's name out at the top of my voice.

I could hear them following me; the Eraser's getting closer and closer. I tried to push my legs to go faster, urging myself on in my head, but I was slowing down. My head was pounding, my arms aching and feeling as if they were weighed a thousand pounds. I flicked my wrists desperately, smashing windows to my right and my left, still screaming out for Collin.

They caught up with me at last, though. I cried and screamed, kicked and bit, I tried everything. But the reality was that I had just been dea- well, let's just say _not completely there_, and there were almost a hundred of them vs. me in a squished hallway.

The last thing I yelled was in a desperate scream that rattled my bones. '_COLLIN_!'

Fang POV:

Iggy had stopped screaming awhile ago. Now he was just conked out on the floor, twitching every so often. The rest of the Flock were either asleep, or pacing. I glanced at the other teen who had been dumped in with us, then at Max who had Angel sleep on her lap. I paced in unison with the Gasman, who looked half asleep but still terrified.

The boy was hunched in the corner, his eyes full of rage and unconcealed pain. His fists were bloody – well, at least the one that wasn't covered in a glove of metal – from punching the wall and steel door repeatedly, his hair was messy and stained with a dark red colour in some places, his expression unreadable. The look Max sent me practically screamed _don't trust him!_ I sent back a _no-freaking-duh..._ look and went back to pacing.

Suddenly, there was a scream from the corridor. The tiny window of our cell flashed with a purple fire and there was the sound of a serious fight going on outside. The boy was up against the door in a flash, his face pressed against the glass. 'Nudge! Nudge, God-damnit, Nudge!' His voice was hoarse and strained from stress, but there was an undercurrent of fear and pure panic.

Wait, Nudge? Did that insolent little kid just say Nudge? He was now pounding on the door, over and over. I was shoved up next to him in a heartbeat, my face looking down on his bloody, angered one. 'What did you just say,' I grabbed his shirt in my hands and shoved him up against the wall. 'Tell me what you said!' I growled as he struggled and tried to punch me.

'Let go of me, she needs me!' When I didn't move, he yelled in frustration and snarled again, 'You're going to kill her, you... bastard!' I dropped him in a second, my eyes flying to the door; it couldn't be... could it?

The boy beat me there, punching in the door with a desperate, crazed look in his eyes. 'Nudge!' He yelled again. At this point, Max, Angel and Gazzy were all pressed behind me, me right behind the kid. All at once, the whole glass pane of the door shattered with a crash and bits of metal flew into the room. I yelled and pushed the others back, shielding my eyes with one hand, with the other, pulling the boy back who hadn't moved an inch.

He resisted my touch and didn't move, stayed as solid as a rock, as the metal and glass smashed into him at lightning speed. I winced as the blood streamed down his face and embedded in his skin. He didn't hesitate and tore the rest of the door to pieces, sprinting out into the battle that was raging in the corridor. I pushed past the remains of the door and followed him, half dreading what I was about to see.

I was right to be wary. I froze upon seeing the boy shouldering his way through the pile of Erasers that were crowded around a small figure on the ground. They were all taken by surprise as he dropped down beside her and took her head into his lap. He breathed a sigh as relief as he checked her pulse and seemed satisfied, then turning to face the bloodthirsty guards.

I jumped in there, trying to take out the rest of them, the rest of the Flock following my lead and getting into battle mode. Well, we sure as hell tried. But reality kicked in and there was over a hundred of them, and only four of us – Iggy was still unconscious and the boy was busy with Nud- I couldn't say her name until I was sure.

We were all shoved into a new room, Angel tossed face down on the floor, the boy refusing point-blank to let go of the girl. They finally gave up and left, the _snick _of the door locking sounding weirdly comforting. We were alone now. Max immediately fixed Iggy in a better position, checking his pulse and stuff to make sure he wasn't dead or anything, the boy crouched over the girl worriedly. I looked over his shoulder, concerned and curious, almost fainting when I saw who the mystery girl was.

It was Nudge.

I yelled and jumped backwards, true motion showing on my face for the first time in a long while. The others rushed over, only to meet the same sight I had, each reacting in a different way. The Gasman swore loudly, stumbling backwards until he hit the wall, his face as white as a sheet. Angel screamed and choked, clutching onto me with shaking hands. Max froze, her eyes fixated on the girl's face, her face unreadable.

The boy, seeing our reactions, immediately put himself in front of her, snarling at us with dangerous eyes. No one moved for a few minutes, all confused and stressed, until we heard Iggy start to stir. He moaned and rubbed his temples with long, place fingers, muttering to himself incoherently. I hissed out of the corner of my mouth to him, 'Dude... you okay?' Out of a reflex. Besides, the others were too shocked to say anything.

'Ugh... why does my head feel like one of those coconuts that rich people slice open to drink fancy drinks with swirly straws in,' At the silence that followed his moan, he stiffened and immediately went into "danger mode". 'Shoot, guys? What's wrong? Why is there another person in here with us?'

More silence.

'Seriously! What the heck is going on?'

Nudge – at least, I thought it was her, I still couldn't be sure because I had seen her _die_ right before my freaking eyes – started to come around, curling instinctively into a ball behind the boy. He put his hand out to keep her back, but stroked her hair to let her know he was there. She groaned, and then took a rasping breath, before wiping the dried (and fresh) blood from her face with one hand.

Then she opened her eyes and looked right at us.

Lindsay POV: 

The alarms started blaring the second I rounded the second corner. Did _they really miss me after two seconds? My right hook mustn't be what it used to be_. Until I realised the alarms weren't set off for me. In a different building, with huge glass windows, I saw an intense fight going on. I silently thanked my lucky stars – I at least had a few minutes to look for him without worrying about them realising I was gone.

I paused every few seconds to look through tiny porthole things where the experiments were being kept. No sign of him. Yet. I wasn't about to give up easily... or at all.

My fingers feverishly dug into my palms as every window was missing his face. I cursed fluently as I tripped over something on the ground and lost my balance. I rubbed my ankle, sprawled on the floor, my eyes getting a close up of the plain white floor. I tried to stand, only to fall on my butt again. _I so did not have time for this_.

I forced my body up, leaning on the wall for support. I took a few steps forward, still with the wall, gritting my teeth in immense pain. _Way to pick a day to break your ankle, Lindsay. How _freaking_ convenient_. I fell the minute I let go of the wall, almost screaming in frustration as I tore the leg of my jeans off so I could wrap my ankle up. I loved those jeans.

I tightly wrapped up my ankle, swearing as my hands did a messy job. I shot up the second I was done, trying to block out my pain receptors. It didn't work. I hobbled forward in a run, stumbling, but desperate to find him before it was too late.

I grew more panicked as I heard the alarms shut off. They must have got the experiment. How long would it be before they found me? I raced around the building, crying soundless tears of pain and despair. I wasn't going to find him. For I knew, they had killed him. He couldn't be dead. I wouldn't freaking let him be dead.

I heard the footsteps behind me, the shouts that alerted the other. They'd found me. I tried to push myself and go faster, but only resulted in falling again. I hit the ground hard, unable to move for a few seconds. A few seconds was all it took for them to surround me. I didn't even try to fight as one of them slung me over his hairy shoulder and headed off in a random direction with me, the others following with hungry looks in their inhuman eyes.

I was numb.

Maybe he was dead. Why wouldn't he have come looking for me, if he wasn't dead? I didn't know what to do if it turned out that he was dead. _Dead._ That word made me shiver and a lump situated itself in my throat, a heavy feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Instead of depositing me back in my own little slice of hell on earth, the beasts threw me in this random room. I landed hard on my stomach again, groaning loudly in pain, curling into a ball.

I could hear other things breathing, but all was deathly silent. _Death_-ly. Why did that word keep coming up? I lifted my heavy head, black dots fading at the edges of my vision. I looked around the room slowly, my head about to explode with pain and exhaustion, taking in my surroundings. I was in a plain room, with other experiments scattered around the room in different positions.

Their faces all showed various degrees of shock and horror, some looking at me, some staring at the other girl who was tucked behind one of the guys. Most of them had dirty wings hanging limply out of the backs of their clothes, all with expressions that probably mirrored my own.

I looked around a final time, really seeing things for the first time. Wait... some of these kids looked familiar. I scanned their faces one last time and gasped aloud as I saw the one face I had been looking for. Except I never expected to find him here. I screamed his name out, my voice sounding crackly and sore. He whipped his head back to look at me, his eyes widening in surprise and what looked like fear.

'L-Lindsay...? Is that really you?'

**Okay, I am so sorry for the late update. I have exams starting this week and my mom has been practically locking me in my room, trying to get me to study. I'll try and get the next chapter up next weekend, but I need your reviews and comments to keep me concentrating and focused!**

**Let me know what you thought...**

**addicted-2-oxygen *.***


	21. Chapter 21

**I am so so so sorry to everyone out there who still reads this, for the horrible-ly long wait until this chapter! I've just come back for a swim camp/holiday in Poland that lasted for almost 3 weeks, and I thought I had posted this, so when I got home to check it and stuff, I felt terrible when I saw it hadn't worked... And then the whole damn thing deleted itself and I was **_**freaking**_** out. Seriously.  
I'm back now, though, and ready to make up for it! Hope you like this chapter...**

Nudge:

I struggled to wade through the darkness, choking back a horrified scream as I felt someone's arms restraining me. My eyes flicked open, showing blurred shapes and a white room. _Too _white. I struggled for a split second, until I heard Collin's slight gasp and his arms tightened around me. He murmured things I couldn't hear into my hair, his eyes fixated something with an intensely horrifying expression showing clearly on his face.

A sharp glance at the focus of his attention showed a teenage girl that looked really familiar, with layered brown hair, a hospital gown that showed she was an experiment in the School and a weirdly crooked ankle that she was clutching tightly. The most striking thing about her –to me, at least- was the way she was staring at Collin._ My_ Collin. Her eyes were fierce, yet soft at the same time, with a terror in them that seemed almost thankful.

I turned my attention to the other people in the room. A boy –dressed in complete black- looked like he was about to throw up as he stared at me, a raw pain clearly visible in his dark pupils. The younger boy had been pacing, stopping to look at me with a painfully confusion. His bright blue eyes were full of agony, and his fluffy blonde hair was sticky with blood and... Soot?

Beside him, sat another teenage girl- looking as though her legs had collapsed under her. Her hard brown eyes searched mine with a frenzied panic, as if begging me to tell her it wasn't true, that i wasn't the one she had long given up looking for. She cradled a little girl in her arms, holding her tightly, and the kid looked as if she was about to pass out.

Well, they all looked like they were going to pass out, to be honest.

The last person I studied made my heart stop. He was slumped against the wall, holding his head, but looking as though he could be a model. I gasped as my gaze ran over the messy strawberry blonde hair, the long lanky body, the amazing eyes, the perfect lips...

_Iggy. Iggy. Iggy. Iggy. Iggy. Iggy. Ig- _

The name ran through my head like an alarm blaring out. I started choking as reality kicked in. God, if this was I-Iggy that could only mean... my head whipped around to see the others again, praying that it wasn't true_. No, no, no_.

My breath caught in my throat as I finally copped **(realised)** it. Iggy. The Flock. The Flock are in this very room with me. Iggy. The Flock. Right here. Right now. I tried to suck in air to say something, anything, but my brain was in shock. I ended up making a weird gasping sound like a fish, which had Collin breaking out of his trance.

My breathing grew fast and panicked as Max started to move towards me. Sparks of purple energy flew from my fingertips as the others (bar Iggy) began to move, scraps of metal from the floor rising up to hover around my clenched fists. I knew what this meant – Revenge.

'Nudge. Nudge! Answer me,' Collin propped my unmoving body against the wall and grasped my shoulders in his bloody hands. I watched with a detached interest as the major cuts on his face (and there were a lot of them... what the _hell _had he been doing?) started to ooze blood as he began to freak out. 'What did you do?' He yelled at the Flock who were frozen once again in shock, probably at the sight of my little break-down.

'C-Collin,' I managed to force out between tight gasps. He immediately dropped down beside me again, and waited for me to say more. 'I-The ... Flock.' He waited for a few more seconds until something clicked. Realisation dawned on his face, and his expression changed from confusion and worry, to horror and reckless anger that seemed to take over him like a demon.

He stood suddenly, and began to walk over to them, his black eyes unreadable. I rose to my feel unsteadily, and put a shaky hand on his shoulder, making him stop immediately and try to support me. I brushed his hands off, my eyes narrowed to dangerous slits. I was ready.

I squared them all up, their expressions showing confusion, Collin about to burst form anticipation and adrenaline. I was in no hurry though, I had waited almost four year for this moment, and I planned to enjoy it. Every second.

From my elbows down erupted in purple flames, I used my magnetic power to burst the bars that were on the window into millions of little metal pieces, metal scraps rising like a tidal wave. Then I extended my wings, somehow getting my powerful purple flames to dance along my feathers. Now _that_ is what I call a dramatic start.

They just stared at me, dumfounded, until Fang found his voice. 'Nu-Nudge, is that really you? I- we- you- dead-' He stuttered, Max and Angel rising to stand beside him and Iggy, who was still on the ground. Typical.

I flinched at the sound my name made coming from his lips, and I sent a hot shard of metal flying out to hit him. It grazed his check, drawing blood, but he didn't move, just continued to search my eyes like a madman. Idiot.

I gathered up my strength, taking a deep breath, ready to get revenge for three years of hell that they had put me through. Just as I was about to start slowly torturing them, Iggy spoke up, as if being snapped out of a trance.

The first words he said were, 'Nudge. Nudge. She's here. Alive. Right?' His blind eyes darted around the room, desperately trying to see someone. _Me_. I felt my temper flare up even more. How _dare_ he ask about me after he freaking _betrayed_ me? They left me. They put me through hell, left me to die, and now all they can say is my name?

I didn't realise I was crying until I felt the hot tears run down my face and drip onto the ground. I didn't even try to wipe them away – there was no point. They deserved to know broken they had made me. I was a completely different Nudge. They had destroyed the old me.

'You really have nothing to say to me? Nothing at all after three years of betrayal?' My words rang out in the silent room. 'I- You left me here to die, _die,_ and now you have no words to say apart from "Is that really you, Nudge"? Really?' I was getting slightly hysterical, my voice growing higher and higher, feeling light-headed as using my purple energy for so long so soon after I had been hurt started to take it's toll on me.

Silence.

'We thought you were dead,' The Gasman's eyes were thick with unshed tears and his small body shook silently. 'How are you a-alive?'

'We saw you die.' Fang's voice was emotionless and rock-hard.

I paused for a second; I had never considered that possibility. 'Okay, so you guys saw me 'die'. But are you really saying the no one of you had the slightest inkling that I might be alive? That I might be stuck here and in unbearable pain? That- that-' I couldn't go on. It was just too painful. I looked into each of their eyes, tears streaming down my face, daring one of them to tell me I was wrong. Daring someone to tell me that they knew, without a doubt, that I really had been "dead".

No one said anything.

I drew in a ragged breath, hating the way I felt so weak. The room was starting to spin a little. Adrenaline was pumping through me, pain slowly overcoming me, revenge so tantalizingly close. But I had to know. 'Why? Why didn't you come looking for me? Or at the very least my body? Please, don't give me that line about "thinking I was dead" because I know that's not completely true now. Just- why?'

Iggy:

_Nudge_. I could hear her. _Nudge_. I could almost see her._ Nudge_. I could reach out and touch her if I really wanted to. _Nudge_. She was alive. _Nudge._

I listened to her my heart smashing into billions of pieces and being crushed by the biggest digger-things known to man every second. How could I have just sat back and not tried harder to convince the Flock that she was alive? How could I have not risked them questioning my sanity? I was the worst wannabe boyfriend (and let me tell you, _I wanted to be_) ever.

She sounded different, as if the "Nudge" part of her was still there, but buried under agony, pain, betrayal, loss and heartache. How could we? How could I? My hands tightened into fists as I heard the small gasps that escaped her lips everytime she finished a sentence. She was crying.

There were other people in the room, two strangers, but I wasn't concerned with them. I just wanted the old Nudge, my Nudge, to be back. All I cared about was the fact that Nudge was alive and standing right in front of me. Nothing else mattered to me_. Nothing_.

I grunted softly as a small tremor racked my body, bringing pain with it, making me grasp Gaz's shoulder for support. I was forced to lean on him as my body ignored my demands (_God-damnit, just STOP and be freaking still!)_ and spasmed like there was no freaking tomorrow. I heard everyone pause and I could feel their eyes on me. I heard Nudge gasp, and half-smiled through the unbearable pain, she cared. At least, that's what I hoped she was gasping for.

I sank to my knees, my eyes tightly shut to keep tears of agony from spilling over, and I grasped my head in my hands as I shook involuntarily. Max's hand was suddenly on my shoulder, squeezing it tight, and I moaned slightly. At last they started to fade, leaving me lying on the floor, breathing heavily. I picked myself off the ground after a few seconds of just trying to breathe normally, determined to show no more signs of weakness, and leaned against the wall, looking nonchalant.

'So... Where were we?'

'W-what was that?' Nudge blurted out after a few moments of awkward silence. She sounded shocked and more than a little freaked, which made my hope soar – _Maybe she does care, just a little._

'Pssht...' I snorted, trying to sound normal, 'Uh, you know, just your average bird-kid seizure-thing...?' I really needed to get the stupid thing fixed, for Pete's sake! It was getting on my nerves, big time.

She coughed, trying to conceal her shock. 'So, um, anyway, why would you assume I was dead when you didn't really know for sure?' Wow. That girl knows how to stay focused.

'Nudge-I- he told us you were dead. He told us that there was no possible way you could be alive. So-so we –' Max broke off sobbing. Max. Crying. Max never cried over anything. This wasn't just anything though. Hell, I was about to burst into girlish sobs too.

'Who. Told. You?' a different voice, tight with anger joined our merry little conversation. It sounded like the kid who had been captured with us. Yeah, the creepy, weird one. He sounded like he needed anger management classes, or at the very least a stress-ball... or ten.

'Jeb. Jeb Batchelder.' Angel's voice was shaky and it sounded like she was trying to stop crying. It took a second for the knowledge to sink in, but when it did I felt like an idiot. Jeb had been lying to us. A_-freaking_-gain.

At the sound of that traitor's name, we all reacted differently. Then, another unfamiliar voice gave the slightest sound of a sob (I doubted anyone else could hear it but me, it was so silent) and then came the sickening sound of flesh hitting solid wall.

Well, that was unexpected.

Collin POV:

I stood there in silence, fuming with myself. If I hadn't let us get captured, we wouldn't be here. Nudge wouldn't have to talk to this mindless scum of a Flock and she wouldn't be hurting like this. They might only see the tears that streaked down her smooth brown cheeks, but I could see past her tough exterior and see how painful this was for her.

I stayed quiet through almost the whole conversation, not wanting to get involved if Nudge didn't want me to. But I was constantly on guard, determined not to let my guard down for even a second, in case one of them made a wrong move. The whole time, the girl (Lindsay, I think her name was) clung to my arm, staring up at me with eyes that portrayed thankfulness.

The only thing was though... _I had no idea who she was_.

I only knew her name was Lindsay from the clothes shop where we had met her in New York. But somehow I suspected she knew me from a long time ago. Maybe they messed with my memory or something when they were experimenting on me, but I just had no idea who she was. I glanced down at her, confused and curious, just to see her staring adoringly up at me.

I blanked, and gave her a half smile. She beamed, as if I had just gave her a winning lottery ticket and asked her to marry me. _Shoot. _When I blurted out her name as she came in, I hadn't been in control of myself. Like, not in an I-can't-control-my-mouth-cuz-I'm-on-drugs-and-am-completely-out-of-my-mind way, or something stupid like that, in a Crap-someone's-controlling-my-mouth-against-my-will kinda thing... You get me?

Anyway, either way, I had no idea who this girl was. I was so screwed.

I tore my attention from Lindsay just in time to hear Jeb Batchelder's name_. Bastard_. I narrowed my eyes in hate, watching the others reactions. Some looked angry (the little blonde boy reaching in his pocket for a box with wires poking out, which he immediately started to alter, connecting the different wires with amazing speed and accuracy – he looked skilled in that particular area), Max looked betrayed – and scary as rage started to take over.

Fang's expression darkened, making him look more and more like a fallen avenging angel of death. Creepy. The little girl, Angel started to cry. As soon as it started, her tears had stopped, her face taking on a dark side, similar to Fang's but not as terrifying. Iggy casually picked up a shard of metal that had fallen from Nudge's tornado of metal and purple energy, and calmly stabbed it into the wall, his eyes glinting darkly. _Hate to be the wall..._

The weirdest reaction came from the teenager beside me. Her body tensed at the sound of his name and, at a glance up at me, she reached out and punched a hole in the wall before assuming an emotionless expression. A. Freaking. Hole. In. The. Wall. What the hell was this girl made of?

Feeling the weight of all our stares, she looked up from behind her glossy fringe. 'What?' She spat, 'You think you guys are the only ones allowed to hate the bastard? Well,_ newsflash_, you're not the only ones whose lives he's messed up.' And then she proceeded to extend all 14 feet of her jet black wings... Seriously, that honestly happened.

Everyone's mouths dropped, their eyes popping out of their heads. Even Nudge looked faintly surprised. 'For Pete's sake,' I muttered, 'does everyone have freaking wings but me?'

Nudge flashed me a half grin at that, the Flock proceeded to stare at me, as if only noticing I was still there now. Lindsay, however, tried to shift her weight to her injured ankle, falling to the ground in a heap, her dark wings shielding her from our eyes.

'The bastard took Collin away from me,' Cue a confused look from Nudge, which I shot right back at her. I had no idea what was going on, 'I went after him, only to be captured and experimented on. I was a prisoner. Then one day the sick, sadistic freak that is Jeb Batchelder came in and told me he'd get Collin back for me. I just had to do a few jobs for him. One of them was to give you guys the clothes that had trackers in them. Then I had to tell the Flock horrible stuff. Sorry, by the way.'

At this point she was slamming her hand against the ground. I could hear tiny cracks each time she did it. Ouch. That gotta hurt.

'But then, Jeb took me into his office and- and- I was sent to the labs again, and then to rot and die in the damp. I busted out, roundabout the same time Nudge was picking a fight with the Erasers, tripped and messed up my ankle, got caught and dumped in here with you guys. I recognised Colin almost straight away, and then for a second when he said my name, I thought he knew me. But you don't, do you, Collin?'

I shook my head wordlessly, 'I'm so sorry, Lindsay, I don't know what they did to me, but... I don't know you.' The words made me feel sick to the stomach, and I felt like such a jerk.

She just gazed at me with those perfect eyes. 'I know. It's not your fault. I was stupid to think they wouldn't pull some kind of trick on me, well, I knew they were going to but I never expected this.' She looked so sad, I found myself racking my memory for any memory at all of her. Nothing_. C'mon!_

Lindsay:

Everything was silent after I made my little speech thing. I watched Collin's face carefully for any signs of recognition. None showed. The poor guy, he looked like he was torturing himself, trying so damn hard to remember. That was my Collin, though, he always tried to please everyone – at least the old Collin I knew.

Just as Max was trying to muster up something to say, the devil himself walked in. Oh yeah, you heard me, Mr Jeb-freaking-Batchelder in the flesh, ladies and gentlemen. I was immediately on my good leg and starting towards him, when I felt a hand on my shoulder, indicating me to stop. I shook it off, limping heavily towards him in a run.

I reached him, starting off with a spectacular right hook (ouch, my hand! Not to self: Don't slam your hand repeatedly into solid floor with all your strength, just before the enemy comes in!), and moving on to wrap my hands around his neck, all the while screaming obscenities at him. '_You cheating, lying, bastard! _I'm going to kill you – You took Collin away from me, you –' At this point, his guards had come in and were pulling me off him. It only took them a few seconds to have me in a tight hold, the others screaming at them to let me go.

I squirmed, bit, kicked, punched – basically, I tried like hell to get free. When they finally released me, I was a panting mess on the floor, everywhere hurting.

I opened my eyes to see everyone staring at Jeb with intense, ready-to-get-in-a-fight faces on.

Then Jeb started talking.

**Hey guys! As I said above, I feel like the meanest person ever... I honestly don't think anyone's still reading this story, but if you are please let me know! I'm having a bit of writer's block so if you review; please include whatever suggestions you might have :)**

**I'll try and update within a few days if I get a good response!**

**Peace out,  
addicted-2-oxygen X)**


	22. Chapter 22

**Sorry for the long wait... I hope you guys think this chapter is worth the suspense!**

Nudge's POV:

We all glared at Jeb in complete shock and rage when we saw Lindsay being thrown to the ground. The Flock, plus me (I wasn't quite sure where I stood with the Flock, now that I knew the true reason why they hadn't come to save me) and Collin, immediately made a protective circle around her, while she tried to stand, only letting slip a single gasp of pain. The girl's got guts.

Jeb's grey eyes were colder than cold, and he fixated them on me with the kind of hunger you see on the face of a vulture just as it's about to feast on the carcass of a dead animal. It made me shiver and I quickly looked away from him, to check on Lindsay. When I turned my gaze back to him it was filled with indescribable anger and hate. He actually flinched back, before assuming a calm facade again. I was _good_.

There was a tense silence, that only lasted for a few seconds until Max exploded. '_You_!' She hissed at Jeb, her eyes portraying rage and betrayal. _Welcome to my life. _'You told us she was _dead._ We _trusted _you. How-how... We trusted you. You told us Nudge was dead. We actually believed that you weren't a complete monster,' At this, Lindsay let out a snort of disbelief. Clearly she was on our side. 'We-I let you back in our lives, and you betrayed us,' Jeb gave a nonchalant half-shrug, 'I will _KILL _you for what you've done!'

Max lunged forward, his body perfectly poised to kill Jeb Batchelder on the spot, but Fang grabbed her around the torso just as she was about to reach him. We had all seen what had happened to Lindsay, and we knew that we needed to be able to fight if the time came. Fang tried to restrain her with the help of Collin, and together they dragged Max back and held her until she stopped fighting them.

Jeb watched the whole turn of events without saying a single word, or even giving any indication that he'd heard Max deliver the dangerous death threat. He didn't even flinch when Max came within inches of wrapping her hands around his chubby little throat. God, I hated the man like it was a religion. He began to talk quietly.

'You see, Maximum, before it was all about you. Everyone in the world wanted to control you; every test was based solely around you, every major scientist knew your name. But then, as you got older, you became too attached to this Flock of yours, too flawed, developed too much of an attitude... you became damaged. We were in need of an avian-hybrid for a new experiment –one that I am very much involved in – that could do the same things you could do, just one that could be broken into doing our will.

'After careful consideration, I suggested using Experiment N45g3 – the one you call "Nudge". She seemed to be the least important out of the six of you, the easiest to break, and the least likely to be missed. Unfortunately, she proved more challenging to crack that we had anticipated, but we found her weakness and –'Jeb's phone suddenly started to ring, loudly, to the tune of Katy Perry's "California Girls". We, all forgetting our current situation, stared at him in disbelief, getting a rather sheepish look in return. _Weird..._

After talking in low tones that even we couldn't hear, Jeb closed the phone and turned to us, a triumphant look on his face. A feeling of dread settled in my stomach – this could not be even remotely good. This was going to be very, very bad.

'I've just received permission to pursue a... personal project of my own in order to get you to co-operate.' Then, out of his pocket where his mobile had been placed seconds ago, Jeb produced a tiny remote control that looked as if it was used to operate those control operated boats or airplanes. I stifled the urge to laugh at the image of Jeb Batchelder attempting to control an airplane, and failing miserably.

I frowned slightly as I focused more clearly on the remote, it look weirdly familiar. However, all thoughts of the familiarity of the object were washed away by fear as Jeb, a wicked grin fixated on his ugly face, pushed one of the main buttons with deliberate force, as if intending to hurt someone badly with his finger's viciousness towards the button.

We all tensed, terrified of what the tiny button might do. A few seconds passed.

Nothing.

Just as I started to relax, a searing pain slashed along my crescent moon scar on my face. The white-hot pain felt like it was burning me; the pain it was giving me went up and up. I gasped and dropped to my knees, holing both hands to my scar which now felt like it was about to burst into flames at any second. Tears trickled down my cheeks, hard as I tried to stop them, from the intense agony I was going through. It felt like someone had doused my face in gasoline, and then sat it on fire, only to take a red hot poker and press it against my scar.

I went to scream in agony, but then realised that my mouth was already wide open, my vocal cords already producing the sound of a blood curdling scream. The only thing was... I couldn't hear it.

My eyes shot open to meet the other's terrified faces, to see their lips moving at fast speeds, to realise that I was the only one going through this. _Not again_. I pleaded_. Please, God, no again. I'd rather die_. Collin was staring at me in shock, his arms the only things supporting me, his lips moving at a crazy speed that I just couldn't keep up with. I gave up trying to understand his words, turning to the rest of the Flock.

Max was waving her arms around like a crazy person, her mouth stuck in a permanent flow of incomprehensible words. Angel was concentrating hard, her eyes shooting daggers at Jeb, trying to control his mind I guessed. The Gasman was helping Lindsay stand as she hurled what looked like serious verbal abuse at Jeb. Gaz's eyes showed pure terror and pain, his head whipping around to stare and Jeb, then back to me, to Jeb and then back to me, as if he could somehow break the connection with my sanity Jeb had created when he pushed that damn button.

Fang was crouched beside Iggy, murmuring in his ear, assessing the situation with his dark eyes, and trying to get through to me with his eyes as I sat there like the empty shell of a person. I was still screaming – I think. Iggy had my wrists in his hands, trying to gently force me to concentrate on him, and drag my hands away from my scar.

Through all the commotion, my eyes connected with Jeb's expressionless ones. He smirked slightly at me, an eyebrow rising in mockery. I sat up straighter, my head suddenly fixated on revenge – I do _not_ allow people to mock me. I ripped my hands, now clenched in fists, away from Iggy grip and pulled myself away from Collin's tight hold. The Flock tried to stop me as I pushed past them, but I shook them off, already getting ready to fight.

My arms exploded in purple flames, my eyes widening with the powerful feeling that washed over me as I walked towards the man who had destroyed me. _I am in control now. Time to show them what I could do... and I could do a lot_.

My first strike knocked the Erasers that were running to protect Jeb off their feet, sending some flying into the solid wall; others were left curled on the floor, with their fur either singed or alight. Jeb was alone now. I knew it. He knew it. Everyone else knew it. _I am in control._

My next explosion of power sent a wave of flames that circled around Jeb, which made him shrink back in real fear. I smiled sadistically, and stepped through the flames as if I was walking through cool water, my mind only focused on one purpose – make Jeb pay. I smirked when Jeb, seeing my success at passing through the flames, reached out his hand to pass it though. He succeeded in only burning his hand, and setting his sleeve on fire. _I am in control_.

It was like being in a silent movie, I could see his lips moving in fear, see the powerful flames grow higher and higher, and see the Flock make crazy gestures, all the time screaming. But I was blissfully numb. Collin was trying to pass through the fire, his face screwed up in pain, his clothes starting to catch alight, but he kept coming.

I sent a wave of power his way, gently wrapping purple strands of power around him, pulling him out of the flames and keeping him there. Jeb's face clearly showed that he'd just had an "accident". _Gross._

'You're going to pay, Jeb Batchelder. I've been waiting a long time for this,' I grinned, showing all my teeth, my eyes glinting dangerously. A hard punch to the jaw sent him flying backwards, another had him on his knees before me. 'How does it feel, Jeb? To be defenceless before me? To not be in-freaking-charge?' I taunted him, each question followed be a brutal kick to his side.

'YOU RUINED MY LIFE!' I screamed, tears of anger and pain running down my face, my hair swirling around me like some kind of evil goddess. I screamed, yelled, cried, and shouted in his face, not noticing the team of Erasers that had come barging in as I couldn't hear the noise they made. The moment the thick, hairy arms circled around my waist, I let go. Power burst from me, in a continuous stream of purple energy, mixed with metal. At that moment, I didn't give a damn who I hit, I didn't care what was going to happen to me – I just... snapped.

Too soon I felt a needle jabbed in my arm, a hard object connected with my face, sending me flying into the wall. I didn't try to move as I saw the Flock and Collin come running over. I didn't care anymore. I could feel Collin shaking my shoulders, Iggy forcing me to look at him.

When I finally tilted my suddenly incredibly heavy head to meet Iggy's worried eyes, I saw terrified worry and anxiety; I saw his perfect lips moving at breakneck speed, and his tousled hair move slightly with every frantic glance that he shot back at the others when I didn't respond. I watched him blankly, already sunk into myself, like the time I had spent in solitary confinement in the School. Except, that time, Collin had saved me. But he couldn't save me from this.

I stared at Jeb with no expression visible. With no expression on the inside or out. I was numb.

I slumped to the side, feeling in energy drain out of me. Collin grabbed me, held me up and screamed inaudibly in my face, tears streaming down his. I knew what was coming. I would collapse unconscious in a few minutes, and then... the rest was a sick surprise.

My eyes flickered closed; my head became too heavy for me to lift up. And then my old friend came to greet me – the Blackness. It was such a good feeling - to not have to think, I embraced it. I'd focus more on my completely messed up life when I woke up. My last image was Iggy, his eyes closed in concentration and pain. The feeling of blood running my face was the last thing I felt.

But, for now, I was safe in the darkness.

Fang:

Nudge lay unconscious on the floor beside Collin (I think that was the kid's name...), and Iggy, with the rest of us in the background. My left arm was bleeding heavily, having been hit from the shards of metal Nudge had sent out as she was captured, and I glanced down at it in anger. They had grabbed us the second they'd charged through the door, and then extinguished the flames with what looked like a fire extinguisher that had spewed out ugly green fumes that made it hard to breathe.

Now all eyes were on Jeb, who was struggling to stand, with the help of a small round whitecoat. Jeb's face was bloody, bruises already beginning to show, his once impeccable white coat was now stained with blood and singed at the edges. Remind me never to get into a fight with Nudge again. He spat blood from his mouth, wiping his bloody nose on his sleeve, before looking at Nudge's still form with disgust clear on his face.

'Take Experiment N45g3, Co11n, and 1gg1 to lab 8... Oh, and bring the others along as well,' We stared at him in horror – the dude was mad. We were all restrained again as the Erasers grabbed Nudge's still body; Iggy's cursing body, and Collin's struggling one. They were shoved in crates, and quickly rushed through the doors.

I tried to desperately to follow them, kicking, biting, doing everything I could think of. Unfortunately, that only ended with me being pressed up against the wall, three Erasers pinning me against the hard rock. 'Why are you doing this?' The Gasman yelled from his position in a sore looking head-lock, with another Eraser holding his legs to keep them from kicking everyone and everything in their reach.

Jeb ignored him, instead turning to Max, 'Don't you see, Maximum? I'm doing this to protect you; they would have hurt and broken you otherwise. You'll thank me later, once you've seen this, I promise.' With that, he spun on his heel and marched out of the room. We were picked up, not easily, and were taken to some kind of observation room with one solid wall of glass.

When they finally dumped us on the ground, being very careful to lock the twelve or so locks on the outside thoroughly, I turned to Angel, 'Can you hack someone's mind, and get us out of here?'

'I-I c-cant, Fang,' She was almost sobbing now, 'They all have some sort of block, and-and it hurts... it hurts so much!' At this she dissolved into huge cries, which racked her small body. Max gathered her into a hug, gesturing to me to check what was out the massive window Lindsay leaning on. It looked out onto a lab that looked like it belonged in a horror film, scientists scurrying around inside it, Nudge, Iggy and Collin firmly strapped down to steel tables.

Lindsay had her face pressed to the glass, her tears making train tracks on the barrier that separated us from them. 'Collin!' She screamed, agony clear in her voice, 'Collin!'

'I don't think he can hear you,' I said gently, trying to get her to lean against me, signalling the others to come over. They had the same reaction as me – pure horror. Max gasped in shock, that quickly turned to anger which she took out on the solid glass in front of us. Gaz took a bomb out of his pocket, moving to the end of the glass, throwing the device at it hard, his eyes lighting up when the large _**boom**_ took place. He cursed loudly when it only succeeded in blackening the floor, and his face, the glass staying as intact as ever. Angel just put her hand on the glass; fingers spread out, and cried even more.

Suddenly, Jeb's voice flooded into the room, a manic smile visible on his face from his position on the other side of the glass. 'Hello, children, I thought you might want to see what development we've made with your friends.' He moved to Iggy's side, Iggy completely unconscious. 'Unfortunately, this subject began to develop seizures, of a kind, that were a result of his DNA collapsing,' He injected a clear liquid into Ig's IV drip, saying 'This will help rebuild his DNA structure, though it may cause a few more fits!'

We stared at him; mouths wide open in disgust, as Jeb started to laugh – more of a cackle, really – uncontrollably. On the table, Iggy started to convulse, his eyes snapping open to reveal empty pupils, his head flopping to the sides like a fish on dry land, his body only being held on the table by Velcro straps. It was horrible to watch.

'Now, onto this one,' Jeb moved to Collin's still form, putting drops of green liquid in his mouth, and slapping his face to wake him, 'Oops, maybe that was too much serum... oh well!' Collin's body suddenly jerked up, his eyes wide and unfocused, 'He should start to come round in a few seconds.'

'L-Lindsay...' He started to mutter, his blank eyes searching the room wildly, 'I remember... I REMEMBER! You... and me...' Lindsay's face was smushed against the cold glass, her lips saying one word over and over again: Collin. Collin's words were becoming harder to decipher as he spoke faster and faster, becoming agitated by the second.

'Let's move on, shall we?' Our eyes were trained on Jeb as he slowly made his way into the middle of the room, where the most whitecoats were gathered around Nudge. 'This is our most crucial test on N45g3, if she survives this, she will be the most valuable asset this company owns.' I froze – _If_ she survives... Jeb picked up a strand of Nudge's caramel coloured hair, feeling the softness for a moment, before holding his opened hand out for a syringe.

I shuddered as the torture instrument came into view, it was the biggest freaking needle I had ever seen... and I had plenty of experience. He glanced up at us for a split second, smiling sadistically, before plunging the needle into Nudge's heart.

**And there goes chapter 22... I can't believe I've gotten this far! Please leave your thoughts, comments, questions, suggestions, and anything you feel compelled to share :) **

**I'll review faster if I get a good response...**

**Peace Out,  
addicted-2-oxygen *.***


	23. Chapter 23

**Hey guys! I hope you like this...**

Fang POV: 

It all happened so fast. One second Nudge was lying still on the table, with Jeb stabbing a syringe into her heart, and the next... it all happened so damn _fast._ The second all the liquid was transferred from the needle to her veins, she went into some sort of possessed fit. Her body went rigid first, as flat as a board and as solid looking as rock.

We watched as she went limp next, then opened her mouth and screamed in pain. She screamed as though she had never screamed before – the sound erupting from her in a blizzard of agony, so shrill that I could feel my eardrums protesting in pain. Then she started shuddering, still shrieking in pain, her hands glowing a soft pink that quickly blossomed into a violent purple. You could even say a violent violet, I guess. If you thought about stuff like that.

Her head started to bang against the table, the _solid steel_ table, her eyes darting around behind pale eyelids. Nudge's face looked so drained of anything that didn't resemble despair, agony or sickness. Her long hair was splayed out on the table around her head, like a halo, some strands stained with scarlet blood, others a soft caramel colour.

I yelled in fury, my hand pounding into the ridiculously thick glass, my eyes focused only on Nudge. Jeb was cackling now, his face still bloody from Nudge's attack, still injecting the green liquid into different parts of Nudge's body. The Gasman was hurling every kind of ammunition and explosive device he had on him (and he had a _lot_) at the glass, his child-like face screwed up in fear. Max was screaming at the top of her lungs, still being half drowned out by Nudge's shriek, at Jeb and, like me, trying to get though the glass. Angel stared into the glass, her gentle blue eyes filling with tears that she refused to let spill over.

Just as it felt like my head was about to explode with the pain from hearing Nudge shriek in unbearable agony, the frustration of not being able to break the damn glass, every freaking thing, Lindsay placed a wary hand on my clenched one that was repeating slamming into the solid glass, and whispered in my ear in a quiet voice. I nodded quickly, yelling to the others to stand back as Lindsay limped into the middle of the huge glass sheet.

She put her hands on the glass, her long fingers spread out, her head bowed in concentration. We waited as she shifted her weight from her injured leg to her good one, taking a deep breath, trembling slightly. Suddenly the view of the room where the others were was concealed by the black smoke that was radiating outwards from her outstretched hands. The smoke stuff started to solidified, leaving what looked like black marble covering the glass.

Max tugged on my arm, as if to say _what the hell is she doing? _'She's helping – or at least trying to...' I hissed back, momentarily doubting Lindsay's ability as the sound of hundreds of Erasers thundering down a small hall reached my ears. They knew what we were trying to do. She'd better hurry up whatever she was doing... or else World War 3 was about to break out in a small observation room.

Just as I was about to give up all hope and get ready to start fighting, a tiny silver crack appeared in the top right hand corner of the solid wall of blackness. Tiny, but it was there, like a small star of hope against the blackness of the night sky. The Gasman punched a triumphant fist.

Nudge was still screaming.

The small sliver of light turned into two, then three. Soon the whole sheet of black coating was filled with tiny crisscrossing cracks; each new line of silver raising my hopes even more, despite the sound of Nudge's anguished cries that echoed around the room. We were going to save them.

Suddenly , the whole sheet of glass shattered, sending shards of glass that were tinted black on one side flying everywhere, making me cover my face with my hands. When I warily looked up, I saw the ground littered with glittering splinters of glass that, only a few seconds ago, had been keeping us from the others. Lindsay was crumpled on the ground, and I shouted for Gaz to pick her up as I jumped through the hole where the glass had been... into the lab.

He nodded once, proceeding to lift her thin fourteen year old body up in his genetically engineered eleven (twelve maybe?) year old arms with apparent ease, before following me into the torture room. Nearly all the whitecoats had fled, except for Jeb Batchelder, and the ones Max had knocked unconscious as she thundered into the room.

Jeb was standing with his arms outstretched over Nudge who was still screaming, but was now twitching on the table, her fingers spasming as if she was playing the piano at a crazy speed. 'Move.' My voice was ice cold, a large shard of glass glinting dangerously in my fist. He and I both knew that I would lunge in a matter of mili-seconds and kill him on the spot if he didn't move.

'Fang, I –' He didn't have a chance to finish his sentence before I flung myself at him, ready to slit the bastard's throat. Jeb reacted faster than I expected him to, turning to the right so I only got him in the shoulder. I whirled around to finish him off, missing the flash of silver that would have set off alarm bells in my head if I had seen it.

I came at him from the left, feinting left first, before darting in and slicing his side open his side. He gasped and, before my mind could grasp what was happening, then plunged a syringe filled with blue liquid into my arm, straight into the bicep. I stared at it for a second, frozen in shock, before I yanked it out... more than half the liquid already in my system. My arm started to tingle slightly, my head starting to feel fuzzy, the tips of my fingers numb. _Crap._

I looked up to find Jeb smiling smugly at me, making me snarl at him with an inhuman expression on my face. I heard Erasers pour into the lab, not registering the sting of a deep cut that appeared on my leg, knowing the others could take care of it. I grabbed Jeb by his whitecoat that send flashbacks roaring into my mind, throwing him onto an unoccupied lab table with such force that he yelled out in pain.

I snatched up a random syringe once I had tied Jeb down, using the Velcro and metal restraints, squirting a little liquid out of it with a demonic expression. 'Let's have a little talk, Jeb,' I started off, standing over the man who had ruined my life, 'First off; what the hell did you do to Nudge?' No response. 'Well, let's test this one out, shall we...?' I stabbed the needle in his outstretched arm, letting a little of the serum leak through. Jeb stiffened and choked for a second, and then immediately started to talk.

'Okay, okay! Just don't give me any more of that stuff – it's only safe for hybrids. Well, Nudge was going to be our biggest success, having shown the greatest resistance to the drug, it induces indescribable pain. Every other experiment had expired once they received the first dose of it. But Nudge... this is her third infusion,' He continued to speak as I stared at him in horror. The _monster_. 'The plan was after she had received this dose, provided she was still alive, she would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. The greatest mutant ever created... and to think, I had a part in it. I will be remembered and—'

I turned away, unable to listen a second longer, I had heard enough. The syringe firmly in my hand, sparing a look down on Jeb's terrified face; I stabbed the thing into his arm, smiling at the cries that immediately burst from his mouth. I strode quickly through the sea of Erasers, not caring when I got jostled or my skin ripped, focused on getting the IV thing that was dripping poison into Nudge's body out. When I finally reached her, I ripped the wires out, tearing her restraints to pieces. She stopped screaming the second I stopped the flow of toxic liquid, but she still continued to twitch in pain.

I whirled around to find the others, punching an Eraser out cold in a second, my eyes finally resting on Max and a half asleep looking Collin protecting an Iggy who looked practically dead on the table. Angel and Gaz were backed against a wall, Lindsay on the ground at the Gasman's feet, still out cold. Gazzy was throwing small bombs every couple of seconds, with Angel fighting the ones that missed the explosions.

I picked Nudge's limp form up in arms and fought my way through the Erasers to get to Max, shielding Nudge from the swipes of Eraser claws that tore through my skin, leaving bloody red lines. Just as I had nearly reached the others, the numb feeling started to creep up my legs, making me stumble and earn a few hard blows for my stupidity. I groaned, but managed to continue on, holding Nudge even tighter as whatever Jeb had injected me with started to take hold.

'Fang!' Max shouted as I reached her, barely able to stand. I gritted my teeth, putting on a good front so it didn't look like anything was wrong from the outside, but really dying on the inside. Gaz and Angel had now joined us, Lindsay in the Gasman's arms. I looked around, panicked, then spotted the small-ish skylight above us. I pointed it out to the others who nodded and got ready to burst through it.

Gazzy was still throwing bombs at the Erasers to keep them back, but he yelled at us to get back, and then hurled a black thing the size of my fist at the roof. There was a massive aftershock, rubble and glass flying everywhere. My whole body was in pain now, and my movements felt sluggish and required all my attention, but I knew I had to get the others out.

I had a responsibility to get the Flock out alive. Even to Collin and Lindsay. The question was, would I be able to make it out.

For that, I had no answer.

Max: 

I got ready to jump into the air, Collin and I awkwardly holding the gangly unconscious mass of limbs that was Iggy. I held him under the arms, Collin holding his legs, Iggy's head lolling around like a doll's. 'Ready?' I yelled.

'Um, Max...'Collin started, an embarrassed look on his face. Then it hit me. Collin couldn't fly, which meant we'd have to leave someone behind and then come back for them. I couldn't carry two people. 'Leave me,' He said, gently dropping Iggy's feet to the ground, 'I'll get out another way.' There was silence as everyone considered the possibility that we might not see Collin again.

'I'll come back for you, dude. Just... wait,' Fang's voice was laced with pain and his word seemed forced, which was unusual for him. Collin nodded, and then, getting a boost from a lab table, Fang launched himself clumsily into the air. Angel followed, then Gaz with Lindsay, and finally it was me. I exchanged a hardcore glance with Collin, before jumping into the air; trying to hold up a heavy Iggy (that guy needs to stop eating rocks!), my wings lifting us higher and higher into the air with each passing second.

When I burst through into the cool air that just screamed _freedom!_, I saw Fang leading the others, heading for a patch of trees in the distance. Fang's flying looked awkward and painful; though I was sure he didn't have any serious injuries. When we were landing, Fang stumbled for a few feet before falling on his knees, drawing in deep and ragged breaths. Before I could quiz him, he had shot into the air, and was heading back for the school, towards Collin. 'Wait!' I screamed, but he either didn't hear me, or didn't want to.

I watched his retreating back for a second, noting the way he was dipping a bit with each downwards wing stroke. My face was creased in a concerned frown, but then I heard Iggy moan and I hurried over to where he, Nudge and Lindsay were lying. 'Ig? You with us?' He groaned back at me, holding his head in his hands and muttered something inaudible. 'What?' I asked, concerned.

'Ugh... f-food...' He moaned, and then rolled over. I breathed a sigh of relief, I was pretty sure Iggy was going to be just fine. I checked the others for few minutes, before I heard the Gasman's gasp and Angel's cry.

'Max! Max, something's wrong with Fang. He's falling!' Angel cried, looking up at the sky where I could see a fang like shape in the sky, free falling. I swear my heart skipped a beat. Beside Fang's shape was Collin's flailing figure, obviously falling as well. The Gasman uttered a swear word I was sure Iggy had taught him, but I was too frozen to even correct him. _Fang._

'FANG!' I shrieked, unable to think of anything but him for that second in time. 'Stay here,' I screamed at Gazzy and Angel, my voice sounding choked. I jumped straight into the air and poured on the speed as if my life depended on it. Well, Fang's life did. As I reached them, I saw Fang's unconscious body dropping though the air faster than I could catch up with him.

My eyes flickered to Collin who was also falling, only he was yelling his lungs out. '_SSSHHHIIITTT!_' Collin was falling slower than Fang, probably because he was resisting the whole way, even trying to flap his arms in an attempt to stop falling. Idiot.

My priority was Fang, who was so nearly at the ground. My wings tucked right in, I dive bombed towards him, terrified of what would happen if I didn't reach him in time. My fingertips grazed his jacked just as we both thudded into the hard ground. Beside us, Collin plummeted into the dirt, lying still also. I turned Fang over with a panicked fear – he was so cold, his face to white, and his breathing too shallow. Collin was moving now, a stream of curses filling my terrified silence.

'Fang,' I whispered, afraid of what was going to happen, 'Fang, wake up. Fang...' I threw myself on his barely moving chest and started to cry. I sobbed into his shirt until I felt Collins hands pull me away. 'No, _no_!' I screamed as I was detached from Fang. I fought Collin's strong grip, pressing my lips to Fang's, praying that he'd respond.

'Max!' Collin yelled, making me look up, towards the school. Towards the group of Erasers that were running towards us. They were close, too close. I didn't move. Collin picked up Fang's still and broken body, and started to sprint over to where the others were. 'C'mon Max!' He shouted back over his shoulder. I started to run brokenly after them, trying to keep up. In the end, I just flew after them, staying close to the ground because I couldn't keep up with Collin's freakishly fast running pace.

'Let's go, guys,' Collin shouted ahead to the others. Iggy, now awake and hungry as it seemed, scooped up Nudge, while the Gasman already had Lindsay in his arms. I just stared after Fang, unable to think about anything else. He couldn't be –

Then the Erasers caught up with us.

**How was that...? Please review and tell me your comments, suggestions, ideas, what you like about this, what you wanna see more of, you fave colours... anything – reviews make me write faster! I tried to slip in a bit of Fax at the end there for any Fax fans :)**

**Thanks to:  
**HeartfeltAngel  
MEGGEM  
Howdy  
nequam-tenshi  
**You guys really make my day when you review :)**

**Peace Out,  
addicted-2-oxygen**


	24. Chapter 24

Iggy POV:

I heard Max's wing beats before she reached us from my position on the ground. They sounded... slightly off, like they weren't in sync with the rest of her body somehow. I frowned, a feeling of unease settling in my empty stomach, my ridiculously hungry stomach. Something just felt wrong. I mean, apart from the unconscious part of our group.

Then I heard his voice, it sounded weirdly familiar. That kid from... the prison room thing! What was his name? I racked my brains, still slow and sleepy from the after effects of whatever Jeb was pumped into me. Co-Collin! I gave myself a mental pat on the back, I normally don't give a crap about random-ers' names, but obviously this dude was important if Max hadn't killed him yet.

Then I registered what he was saying. Well, screaming more like. _Jeesh, does the guy have to be so freaking loud?_, a tiny part of my mind was shouting, but it was drowned out by the rest of my head screaming _danger!_. Luckily, I always listen to the _danger!_ part. When the guy finally shut up for long enough for me to think clearly, I heard the familiar sound that practically was the definition of danger for us birdkids.

'Erasers!' I yelled hoarsely, my voice dry and cracked. My fingers scrambled desperately across sharp rocks and dirt until they found their target: Nudge. I swept her up into my arms, clutching her tightly to my chest like she was a lifejacket, and I a drowning dude. Yeah, that's how much I need her. I calculated quickly how far away the Erasers where by concentrating on the echoes and other sound stuff... We still had time. Barely.

My feet pounded off the ground as I jumped straight into the air, taking no chances of Nudge getting hurt. I'd lost her once, and I didn't plan for it to happen again. Ever. I faintly registered the sound of Gaz and Angel rising up to join me as I hovered above what I assumed to be trees, but no Max. _Crap_. Then the harsh sound of fighting reached me, the thud of flesh against more flesh, the grinding of bones as people fell, the harsh grunting caused by extreme effort. This was really bad. I screamed Max's name in panic... why wasn't she following?

After too long, Max panted up to me, as if a great weight in her arms, her voice shaking as she called out my name, 'Iggy...' She was _this_ close to weeping, her breaths shuddering and strained. I immediately flew to her, my blind eyes calculating where hers would be, looking her more or less in the eyes. 'T-take Fang and give me Nudge.'

_Take Fang? Couldn't the dude fly by himself or was I just imagining the last fourteen years? _But my question was answered when Max dumped this ridiculously heavy body in my arms, carefully extracting Nudge before she could become squished, leaving me to become accustomed to the new weight. Unfortunately, I had no idea what was going on, so I blanked and my wings froze for a few seconds.

I dropped a couple of metres, evidently coming into the sight of the Erasers, who started shooting at me with what sounded like a couple of machine guns. I snapped out of it fast, straining to lift me and Fang up to where the others were, a bullet grazing my leg. I struggled up to Max, confusion and pain written all over my face, blood trickling down my leg.

'I'll explain later, Ig, for now just follow Collin, guys!' Max ordered, seeing the question in my eyes, a slight tremor to her usually unbreakable voice. I cast a desperate glance over to where I could hear the Gasman's low breaths, but then, getting no reply, I just tried to focus on not dropping out of the sky. Every second was a struggle to stay airborne, every beat of my wings making me more and more weary. And we hadn't even started to fly anywhere yet!

I heard Gazzy activate one of our bombs through my haze of pain, a small smile appearing on my tired face as the _**boom!**_ echoed through my sensitive ears. The heat of the blast seared my face, though it felt soothing to me, clearing my mind, making me gasp with the sudden energy that flowed through me. Explosions made me feel... strangely _alive_. I was ready.

'Bank right, Ig, and stay west. Let's go guys!' We set off at a fast pace, one that I struggled to keep up with. Fang was lifeless in my arms, heavy as heck, and as silent as... well, he's always pretty quiet, so nothing was really different in that aspect. I rolled my shoulders, my arms cramping from holding Fang under the arms for around an hour. I really hoped he didn't wake up when we were in the air; he was going to be seriously freaked if he opened his eyes and saw his feet dangling into space.

On the other hand, if he did decide to let his consciousness make an appearance, he could fly himself... I retreated into my thoughts, fantasising about fast food, milkshakes, hot girls (mainly Nudge... okay, all Nudge), and more fast food. I was yanked out of my food fantasies by the Gasman yelling in my ear, trying to be heard over the wind that whipped around us constantly, 'We're landing now!'

I nodded once, listening to hear Max's body start to angle downwards, copying her movements. I dropped Fang the second I hit the ground, feeling my arms tingle with pins and needles. _Thank God, I was afraid I was gonna drop him in mid-air or something_. I heard a groan a split second after he hit the ground, a pained moan that made Max stop in her tracks; she was on her way to look out for Collin.

'Fang?' I asked carefully, getting a grunt in return. There was silence as Max threw herself down beside him, practically crying with relief. 'You mean I _carried_ halfway across _freaking America_, and you were fine? You jerk!' I yelled at him, dry humour in my voice, but mixed with actual disbelief. 'I can't believe you,'

Max smacked me upside the head as she stood, after checking Fang over for any fatal injuries, going to look for Collin, satisfied that Fang was marginally okay. 'I'm sorry, Ig. If I had been conscious, I would have flown myself, man,' Fang croaked at me as I searched my pockets once again for any morsel of food. _Dang, still nothing_...

'Damn straight, you should be sorry. You owe me, dude,' I sighed heavily, running a hand through my hair that was sticking up unnaturally. Just as I was about to start foraging for nuts and berries, that's how hungry I was, Max's footsteps came walking back into the clearing, along with what I assumed were Collin's. I turned slightly, concentrating, trying to visualise what this "Collin" guy looked like.

He sounded kinda tall, heavy footsteps, his breathing indicated the fact that he was fit, his stride practically screamed confidence... and, let's face it, the fact that Max hadn't beaten him up yet showed that he had something to contribute. 'Fang! Are you okay, man? I mean, we fell a pretty long way, and then you weren't moving, and Max was freaking out, and then the Erasers came and—things were just crazy...' Collin gushed, his voice deep and worried.

'I'm fine.' Came Fang's short reply, his voice slightly strained. I cast a questioning glance his way, not that I would be able to see his response, heading over to Nudge's side. I sat down beside her thin body, smoothing down her wavy hair, remembering how it used to be an uncontrollable explosion of frizzy curls. My long fingers found her slender hand, and I held it, waiting.

There was silence for a few blissful minutes, before Max went off to the nearest town to buy a load of food with Collin, after finding money in of his pockets, leaving me to bandage up The Gasman and Angel's various cuts and scrapes. I even forced Fang to let me check him out, finding only a long cut that oozed blood on his back that was quickly bandaged. When he offered to wrap up my bullet wound and my other cuts and stuff, I refused him, turning away so he wouldn't see the pain I was in.

Then I gently checked Nudge, bandaging the cuts I could feel first, then consulting Angel to help me with the ones I couldn't. Finally, I wearily wrapped half of my t-shirt around my leg, wincing as I tied it tight, to make sure no more blood would escape.

By the time Max and Collin arrived back, the other girl, Lindsay, was stirring too, going into a panic until Collin ran over and whispered in her ear, holding her in his arms. My arms twitched towards Nudge, longing to sweep her up in my arms and hold her until she woke, but something seemed to hold me back. What if she loved someone else? Was there something happening between Nudge and Collin?

I wolfed down a couple of hot-dogs absentmindedly, taking the loaf of bread Gaz threw at me and shovelling it down, not even concentrating. Max nagged at me to act like a normal human being, but I just grabbed another bottle of a random fizzy drink, downing it in a minute, my unseeing eyes never leaving the place where I could feel Nudge lying beside me. The others joked and laughed, all ecstatic that we made it out alive, Lindsay never leaving Collin's side now that she knew he remembered.

Occasionally one of them would try and include me, trying to make me feel a bit better, but I ignored them, trying to picture the flames that danced around in my mind. I wanted to shake Nudge, to throw water on her, to so anything to get her to wake up so I could tell her how I feel. My hand squeezed hers, desperate to do anything to help her.

I heard Fang's footsteps heading my way, he sat down heavily beside me, ignoring the way I turned my head to indicate that I wanted to be alone. 'Go away,' I growled, tossing an empty soda bottle at him. He punched me lightly on the leg, clearing his throat softly.

'How's she doing?' He asked quietly, passing me a chocolate bar. I ran my fingers over the packaging, feeling the bright blue logo and the black print that I couldn't see. I shrugged, tossing it back to Fang, my appetite gone. Fang moved closer to Nudge, feeing her pulse and noting the bandages I had made from bits of my shirt. 'You love her, don't you?'

I just stared at him, my eyes showing the answer. He patted me on the back, and then left me to my thoughts, heading back to the others. Night came fast, with me offering to take first watch, despite Max's worries that I needed sleep. I promised her that I would wake her when I got tired, but we all knew that was a lie. I was going to stay up until Nudge woke up... however long that took.

So that's how I ended up lying on the soft grass, looking up where I assumed the stars must be, holding Nudge's hand as everyone else slept. I lay there for hours, my mind numb, my eyes dry, and my ears listening for any sounds that might indicate someone waking. Just as I was about to stand and stretch my legs, she moved.

I was frozen, unable to move as Nudge rubbed a hand over her eyes, her body shifting slightly. I listened as she slowly came round, murmuring to herself as she sat up. 'Nudge?' I whispered, hardly believing that this was really happening. I got a moan in response, the sound of her voice making me want to scream with joy.

'Ugh... Iggy? Is that you?' Her voice echoed around me, and I wrapped my arms around her, breathing in her wonderful scent that brought back memories of long ago, of my childhood, and of everything I loved about life. I breathed her name, loving the way it sounded in the crisp night.

And then I kissed her.

Max POV:

I woke up to the smell of bacon. My groggy mind registered the smell, and heard the sound of laughter and just general happiness. I sat up, seeing Iggy poking a dying fire, the rest of the Flock and Collin and Lindsay roasting marshmallows and making smores around it. I staggered over to them, still sleepy, before plonking myself down beside Fang, grabbing a marshmallow from one of the many bags that were scattered around us.

'Where did these come from?' I asked, noticing the way Nudge was casually leaning against Iggy, her eyes flickering towards him every few seconds, beside me. I made a mental note to grill them about it later, my mind focused on food first. I hugged Nudge briefly, glad she was okay, feeling her arms reach up and hug me back.

'We used the leftovers of the money Collin had in his pockets,' Lindsay said quietly, Collin's arms wrapped her, her blue eyes sparkling like diamonds. Her jet black wings were protruding from her loose hoodie, the feathers bloody but healthy looking, completely relaxed. Angel and the Gasman were messing around and joking with each other, Gazzy mushing a melted marshmallow into Angel's hair as she screamed and tried to push him away.

I sighed, playing with Fang's hair as Iggy whispered into Nudge's ear, making her burst out into an unfamiliar laugh. My heart gave a twinge of pain as I studied her, her blood streaked hair, her tall, skinny body that had changed so much, the way her face changed into an expression that I had never seen on her before. She had changed so much.

As I looked at my Flock, noticing the flakes of dirt and blood that covered them from head to foot, I made one of my snap decisions. 'Guys,' I said suddenly, loving the way Fang's arm snaked around my back and squeezed me tight, 'We're going swimming.'

Every head turned to me, confusion in their eyes. 'What the hell, Max?' Iggy asked, clearly questioning my sanity.

'I second Max's decision,' Angel said quietly, giving me an angelic smile as she pinned her brother to the ground. I winked at her as I started on my second smore, ignoring Gaz's cries for help.

'Look, basically you all smell. Really bad. And you're covered in blood and dirt. There's a lake a couple of km away, so I think it'd be a good way to get clean and have a bit of fun at the same time...' I trailed off as they all started to jump up and gather their things, excited. I grinned as I put out the fire, looking up and catching the glance Nudge and Iggy shared for a split second. I really needed to talk with them...

As we took off, Collin running beneath us, I kept an eye on Lindsay, making sure she knew how to fly. Thankfully, she knew exactly what she was doing, spinning and twirling around in the sky with Nudge like a graceful hawk. I swooped around in the sky, feeling like nothing could possibly stop me, leading the way to the lake I had spotted earlier.

It was deserted when we got there, the Gasman immediately pulling his wings in and dropping out of the sky, hitting the water with a loud _splash!_, soaking us all. We all screamed as he came shooting up towards us again, shaking his wet hair in Angel's face and dragging her down with him. She squealed, letting herself be pulled into the sparkling water with a tinkling laugh.

I smiled, watching my Flock all jump into the water, Collin and Lindsay fitting right in with them, everyone unwinding and just having fun. I dive-bombed, using my super speed to smash into the water at an incredible speed, my eyes shining with joy. We played games of tag and, for those of us who had developed the ability to breathe underwater, had an elaborate game of hide and seek underwater. Then we floated on our backs in the cool water in silence, wishing this day would never end.

But, like all good things in my life, it did, and we dragged our tired butts out of the water, collapsing in a circle, too tired to do anything. Finally, I sat up, shaking out my wet hair like a dog, and started to make a fire. We then finished the last of the marshmallows, a low hum of conversation surrounding our fire. I studied Nudge for a few minutes, noting the way she reacted to Iggy's light touch as he ripped up the last of one of his shirts to make more bandages, which he distributed amongst us.

I carefully wrapped the Gasman's cut from where a sharp rock had jutted into him, watching how Iggy insisted on checking and redressing all of Nudge's wounds, leaving his own until last. There was defiantly something going on there. I caught their eyes, jerking my head to indicate that I wanted to talk to them. We walked until we reached a tree stump, where Nudge sat, pulling Iggy down with her. I saw that look in her eyes again, the one that reminded me of how much she had changed since we'd lost her.

'We need to talk...'

**So... What do you think? It took me ages to write this chapter, but I think it's okay... There's probably only going to be one more chapter, so if you have any suggestions, put them in a review and I'll try to include them :) That part at the end, where they went swimming, was for **TheBoyWithTheBread **who suggested it!**

**Thanks to the following for reviewing the last chapter:  
**HeartfeltAngel  
TheBoyWithTheBread  
nequam-tenshi  
MaxandFang101  
Sheenny  
Howdy  
lunareclipse3  
**You guys make me go really hyper when I get your reviews!**

**Peace Out,  
addicted-2-oxygen **

**PS. I posted a new one-shot a couple of days ago, so check it out if you want to!**


	25. Chapter 25

Nudge POV:

I watched Max as she struggled to find the words to say. My body jumped as Iggy moved a little closer to me, not being able to see Max's death stares that were practically burning a hole in his face. I squirmed under Max's gaze, feeling like an eleven year old again, being punished for dying Fang's hair blue or something stupid like that.

The others were laughing by the fire, Collin occasionally glancing over to us, concern in his dark eyes. Iggy started to casually devour the marshmallows he had left over in his pockets, nonchalantly slinging his hands across the back of his head, yawning. Max rolled her brown eyes, looking towards me in exasperation, trying to figure me out.

'Look, Nudge...' She started, breaking off as her words failed her again. Her frown creased in concentration as she looked away, I could practically see the wheels turning in her head, as she stared at me with that look again. The one that screamed _change!_ and made me want to turn back the clock to the day I was "killed." I could see Collin itching to run over, and even Fang was looking slightly curious as he poked the dying fire.

Max started to shout at Iggy, her hands gesturing wildly, but I wasn't listening. I was so confused about everything; my mind felt like it was being fried, my head pounding like crazy. I caught Collin's eye, my tortured ones appealing to his dark pupils, begging him to come save me. He took it the wrong way, immediately jumping up, ignoring Fang's attempts to stop him. Collin marched over and tapped Max on the shoulder, his hair damp and tousled. Max stopped in mid rant, turning to find Collin staring at her.

'What?' Her voice was tense and with ice, her eyes daring Collin to say something. He side-stepped her, his attention only on Nudge.

'Are you okay, Nudge?' I looked away, tears streaking down my dark-skinned cheeks, embarrassed that I was showing weakness in front of anyone but Collin. 'Nudge... it's okay if you don't wanna deal with this. Everyone will understand.' I looked up at Collin with tear-filled eyes at him, my shoulders silently shaking.

Iggy shoved Collin out of the way, putting his long arms around me and pulling my shaking body into a hug. I didn't resist, melting into his arms, crying softly until I finally pulled away, my sobs reduced to slight hiccups. My red rimmed eyes flickered over to the rest of the Flock who had come over hesitantly, giving Fang a small smile to assure him that everything was okay – he looked like he was about to punch Collin.

Iggy turned my face back to him with his soft hands, looking me more or less in the eyes. 'Nudge... I love you.'

I gasped as he leaned in and gently kissed me. The kiss was amazing, everything I'd hoped for in a few short seconds. We were cut off brutally by the over-protective Collin tackling Iggy to the ground, pinning him down and yelling in his face, 'What the hell, dude? Can't you see she doesn't know what she wants? Don't you dare take advantage of her like that.'

He was quickly pulled away from the struggling blind mutant by Fang and Max, the Gasman helping an enraged Iggy up, holding him back from attempting to strangle Collin. 'You bastard! Nudge doesn't want you, she wants me.' The wingless mutant struggled to get out of Fang and Max's tight hold at this, his dark-ish hair flopping into his pitch black eyes.

I watched the whole scene with crystal teardrops spilling from my big brown eyes. I wanted to move, to stop them from fighting like animals, but I was frozen. My mind was numb, I couldn't even imagine deciding between Collin or Iggy, it felt like my heart was ripping in two.

'No!' I yelled, just as Iggy ripped himself out of Gazzy's hold and flung himself at Collin. Both the teenage boys stopped instantly, their eyes darting to me as if I was a magnet. 'I—I just can't choose between you guys. Collin, I love you so much, you're my best friend, and you're like my brother. You protected me when we were in the School, you broke me out of my shell when I was isolated, and you help me realise what was important. Iggy... I think I love you too and I... But, I need Collin as well—' My voice was shaky and my whole body was trembling.

I was cut off by Angel taking my hand in hers and squeezing it tight. Slowly, Iggy glanced at Collin, turning slightly so I couldn't see the meaning in the look. Iggy, not being able to see Collin's response, then carefully made his way over to me, making no sudden movements as if I was a scared animal.

'Nudge,' He reached out and touched my arm softly, 'I don't want you to choose if you don't want to. You do whatever you need to do, because I'll always be here for you... I don't want to hurt you.' Collin edged up beside him and slowly squeezed my other shoulder. I looked up at him, wanting to know what he thought, but scared.

'I—We—Listen, Nudge, I love you like a sister, and you are my best friend too... You don't have to choose because I'll be around for as long as you need me to be. Just say the word and I'll be here.' I hiccupped slightly, before throwing my arms around both of them and pulling both my guys close. I let go of Collin as Iggy pulled me away and kissed me again, this kiss full of raw emotion and passion – everything I had tried to escape from in the last few years.

I vaguely registered the click of a button or something, but I ignored it. I mean, we were in the middle of the woods, where the hell would an electrical thing come from? The sound of Gaz's best evil laugh interrupted me, and I whipped around to see him with a mashed up thing with wires poking out of it, covered in mud, with a red blinking light on it. The closer I looked at it, the more it started to resemble... but it couldn't be...

'Is that a video camera, Gaz?' I asked, incredulous. 'What the— where did you even _get_ that?' The others were snickering now, Lindsay enclosed in Collin's strong arms, her chin resting on his muscled shoulder. I locked eyes with him, giving him a thankful look. He winked back at him, the corners of his mouth curling up as his dark eyes stared into mine.

'Nudge and Iggy sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G and—' I froze; God only knows what the kid would do to with that tape. Visions of YouTube and every other freaking video posting website started to spin around me, millions of hits on the video of me and Iggy making out, sound effects and other Gazzy-like things being added. I had to get that damn tape.

I lunged at Gazzy as he waved the camera above his head, cackling like only the Gasman could, his blue eyes glinting with excitement. I collided with him in mid air, falling to the ground as I tackled him playfully. I pinned him down, shrieking with frustration as he chucked the camera at Fang just as my fingers grazed it. 'Fang, catch!' The mutant teen clad in his typical black outfit caught it easily in one hand, giving me a rare smile as I scrambled up and ran at him. He threw it to Max just as I reached him, laughing softly as I punched him in mock anger.

Max tossed it back to Angel, who passed it to the Gasman again. He stuck out his tongue at me as he flexed his wings, ready to take off and make me hunt him down. I extended my wings too, my eyes narrowing as I prepared to pounce. The rest of the Flock (plus Lindsay and Collin) were laughing loudly now as Gazzy and I circled each other, Iggy practically rolling around on the ground as Angel described the scene to him.

'Just gimme the tape and no one gets hurt...' I said quietly, feeling like an animal stalking my prey_. Must get video_. He pretended to consider for a seconds, tossing the tape from one hand to another, a mischievous smile on his cheeky little face.

'Fine... But on one condition,' I nodded slowly, inching forward carefully, 'First you have to catch me though!' With that he shot up into the air like a rocket, me following closely, like a heat seeking missile, ready to destroy.

'Hey! Don't go too far,' I heard Max shout after us as I spun around in the cool night air, loving the feeling of wind on my face. The Gasman was weaving in the air, making it hard for me to try and grab him. He suddenly tucked in his wings and dropped out of the sky into a random part of the forest. I followed, a smile on my smooth brown face, ready to wrestle him for that video.

'Okay, what's this condition?' I asked once we were settled in a large tree, sitting comfortable on a large branch around a hundred feet off the ground. My feet dangled into space as I grinned at Gaz. This was just like the old days. He was silent for a few seconds, looking down at the forest floor.

His face looked up at me after a few moments, suddenly dead serious, 'I just—I want you to promise you won't ever leave again... I missed you so much,' A tear dripped down his check and he wiped it away furiously as more started to fall. I pulled him into a hug, remembering how it felt to have a little brother. His small but powerful arms hugged me back tightly as I held him close.

'I'm not going anywhere, Gaz, I swear. You can't get rid of me that easy,' I heard myself say softly as I stared into the depths of the forest. We stayed like that for a few minutes until Gazzy untangled himself from my arms, trying to rid all evidence of his crying with his dirty sleeve. I punched him lightly on the arm, my eyes slightly teary, remembering how empty I'd felt without the Flock there. 'Now gimme the damn tape. Where did you even get the thing?' I said, seeing the mushed video recorder in his pocket.

'Found it in the forest and then I fixed it up...' He toyed with the thing, tossing it around to tease me. I growled in mock fighting mode.

He looked wickedly up at me, before finally handing me the tape which I immediately shoved in my pocket. The flight back to the others was slow and relaxed, both of us just enjoying the freedom of flying and letting go of all the stress. The Flock was laughing and joking as we sauntered towards, me ruffling the Gasman's fluffy blonde hair as I walked over to Iggy.

As I sat down on Iggy's lap, feeling perfectly safe for the first time in a long time, I looked around at the people who were laughing and swooping funny stories, the people who were stretched out the people who I considered my family. I felt complete, for the first time in years, almost wishing time could freeze forever and we could be stuck in this perfect moment. I could feel Iggy's arms securely around me, keeping me safe, I could reach out and touch Collin if I wanted to, just to make sure he really was here with me, I could see the Flock everywhere I looked, it was almost a dream.

I fell asleep curled up next to Iggy, in the middle of the Flock, Collin and Lindsay sleeping side by side. Max took first watch, then Fang, Iggy and then me. I hardly slept though, waking up every half hour just to make sure everyone was still there, and that this wasn't some big elaborate dream. They were all there when I woke up each time, making me sigh with relief and gladness.

When the morning came, we were all half asleep as Max forced up into the air, well, Collin was running below us, her paranoia levels at an all new high. Iggy was moaning at Max, pissed off at being woken up and forced to fly. His hand was intertwined with mine, our wings beating in unison.

We dumpster-dived for breakfast at the nearest town, scavenging whatever we could find... which was surprisingly a lot. Like, Jeesh, people don't appreciate the values of a tinfoil wrapped sandwich anymore. After our dumpster pig-out, we were sprawled across a few park benches, trying to figure out what to do next. As we brainstormed, I noticed a flash of gold out of the corner of my eye. I whipped around, jerking out of Ig's arms, my eyes trying desperately to pick out the flash of gold that I had seen.

The others stopped talking, looking at me strangely as I stood up, my head twitching to the side slightly as I looked around feverishly. 'Nudge...?' Collin said quietly, a note of concern audible in his low voice. I shrugged his question off, finally finding the object of my search. I fell to my knees beside a small bush, shoving my hand inside it and rummaging around until my fingers caught hold of something small, hard and plastic.

I snapped out of my trance as I pulled the small card out, exchanging a freaked out look with Max. I tossed the plastic square at her, desperate to have it out of my hands; it felt like it was burning me. She read out the small words imprinted on it as I shakily made my way back over to the others, 'It says, "Maximum Ride"... It's like a credit card, almost identical to the one I found in New York. How did you know where it was, Nudge?'

They were all looking at me now, 'I dunno... it was like someone was controlling my body,' I shivered, creeped out by what had just happened. Iggy squeezed my hand reassuringly as I stared at Max, desperate for answers, 'So, what now?'

She passed it to Fang, a thoughtful look on her face, staring into the bush where I had pulled it out. Fang toyed with it in his hands, turning it over to read the back, 'Well,' He said softly, 'It looks pretty legit...' It was passed round everyone, my fingers tingling as I touched it for a second before practically flinging it at Collin. He caught it with both hand, giving me a slight smile as I trembled. His eyes never left me as he held the card, seeing straight past my barriers and into my mind, an eyebrow going up with concern.

I shook my head at me, I was fine. He nodded, slowly taking his eyes off me as Max started talking again, 'I guess we could try it...' As we made our way to the nearest ATM machine in town, Iggy hung back with me, kissing me softly on the cheek as I smiled at him. Max broke me out of the haze I was in, yelling loudly form across the street, 'Hey, Nudge! You any idea what the password might be?'

I went over to them, studying the machine with the password application open. Then I thought about my life so far, all the good and bad parts, all the tests and rewards, 'Try _family_,' I said quietly, knowing it would be right somehow; because family was the most important thing, whether they be related or not. The Gasman started cheering as money poured out of the machine, with us hastily stuffing it into any pockets we could find.

After the machine stopped randomly spewing notes, we stood in silence for a few minutes, 'Well, that went well,' Collin announced cheerfully, pulling the card back out and handing it to Max, who shoved it a random pocket.

Half an hour later, found us up a large tree in the park, a ridiculous amount of junk food surrounding us. The branch I was on had the most food, due to the fact that Iggy and Gaz were beside me, stuffing their faces with whatever was closest. 'Are we going back to Dr. Martinez now?' Angel asked as she snuggled up next to Max.

'I don't think so, Ange,' Fang said as he looked at Max who nodded slowly, thinking the situation over.

'It's just not fair to put them in danger anymore; I don't think we should go back. If there was some way we could get a house in the middle of nowhere or something, we could hang out there until...' She trailed off, noticing the smile that appeared across my features, the way my fingers twitched slightly in anticipation, 'What is it, Nudge?'

'Just get me to a computer.'

They all watched, in astonishment as my fingers flew over the keyboard, my forehead burrowed in concentration as I hacked some random estate agent's site. 'Uh, okay guys, here we have a remote house in the middle of freaking nowhere, beside some cliffs, and... Then there's another one in the middle of a forest. Any takers?'

The codes they put up to stop people from doing this kind of thing were no match for me, their passwords stupid and easy to crack, the website under my control within a matter of minutes, 'Holy shi—_spit..._' Lindsay muttered as pages and pages of data appeared up, with me navigating quickly through them. I was filled with an indescribable rush, the hum of the generator coursing through me as I typed.

Our voices were hushed as we were in a public library, all crammed around the one computer screen, looking at different houses to "buy". The Flock expressed their opinions as I pulled up yet another page of newly built houses in isolated locations, my eyes shining as they focused on typing another long and complicated code to get access to the classified information. I saw Max exchange a bemused look with Fang as Angel and Gazzy started fighting over a house with a Jacuzzi or one with a diving board.

'Okay, okay, guys, calm down,' I said quickly, noticing the librarian who was sneaking a peek at us over her desk. I peered at the screen again, my sharp eyes picking out a potential winner, 'How about that one?'

So here we are, three days and a _load_ of illegal hacking later, getting settled into our new home; a huge house with glass windows everywhere, looking over a steep drop, with a forest to its rear and lots of space, in the middle of nowhere. It was no trouble to get the property to mysteriously disappear off the face of the internet, me deleting every possible record of the place online.

The tape of Iggy and I kissing was heavy in my pocket, concealed by my large hoodie, making a smile burst across my face. I had watched it last night on a computer we had bought, rewinding it over and over again in the dark. I would never throw this out. Our first real kiss...

I turned around to watch the guys lugging new furniture –thank you, Internet, yet again!—everywhere, under Max, Angel, and Lindsay's command, their instructions changing every time the heavy furniture was moved. 'No, a little to the left I think... wait, try over in that corner again,' Lindsay's face was shining as she directed Collin around the room, trying to decide where to place the red leather couch.

Collin and Lindsay had both decided to stay with us, they had been gone for a few years now and it wasn't really safe to go back to their families. They were happy with us, slotting right into Flock-mode with ease. I caught Collin's eye and smiled at him as he dragged the sofa across the room for the fifth time. I was so glad to have him with me; it didn't feel normal without him beside me anymore. He is as much my brother as Fang or Gaz are now.

Iggy had given up, sprawled across the floor, laughing as he heard Fang and Gaz try and manoeuvre their pieces of furniture around him. 'Get off the ground, Ig, you lazy ass!' Max was yelling at him, as Fang nearly dropped the coffee table on the blind teenager.

As I looked around at these people, the people who made my world complete, I realised I had come home.

I was finally home.

**Wow. I'm finally finished this... I honestly never thought I'd get past the first few chapters! Thank you so so much to everyone who reviewed, favourite-d, or put this on story alert – I couldn't have done it without you guys :) **

**There might be a sequel in the future so feel free to PM me if you have any suggestions, or leave your thoughts in a review or whatever. I hope you guys thought the ending was good; it took me awhile to write because I wanted to get it just right. **

**I guess this is it... For now! I will defiantly be posting more stories and stuff so keep an eye out :)**

**Peace Out,  
addicted-2-oxygen **


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